President Truman has notified the British Government that the new United States administration can no longer accept the joint Anglo American policy worked out between Ambassador Lewish W. Douglas and Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin for a political settlement of the Palestine question, it was learned here this week-end in United Nations quarters.
A resolution had been drafted by the Foreign Office in London incorporating the political and territorial conclusions of the report of the late Count Folks Bernadette and had been submitted to the State Department. It was intended as a formal expression of Anglo-American policy on Palestine and was to have been put before the U.N. General Assembly’s Political Committee next week.
The projected resolution proposed that Israel be recognized, that the Arab refugees be entitled in principle to return to their homes and that the Negev area, previously allocated to the Jews, be divided between Egypt and Trans Jordan.
President Truman’s views, as conveyed to Britain, make it clear that the United States will not support this proposed resolution. It will, instead, propose amendments of the substance, or submit its own resolution which has already reached the preliminary drafting stage. The United States proposal would take note of the recommendations made by the Bernadette report which suggest recognition of Israel, international responsibility for Arab refugees and setting up of a conciliation committee to negotiate formal peace in Palestine.
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