The United Nations today turned over to a 12-member sub-committee the task of trying to formulate plans for a provisional regime to govern Palestine when the British Mandate ends.
This action, proposed in an amendment submitted by Dr. Guillermo Belt if Cuba, vas approved by a vote of 33-7, with 13 nations abstaining. The Slavie bloc led Uruguay voted against. Most other pro-partition countries abstained.
The sub-committee will consist of delegates from Argentina, Belgium, Canada, China, Cuba, Guatemala, France, India, Norway, Poland, Soviet Union, and United States. It is therefore considered as essentially predisposed against partition, since only three of its 12 members — Russia, Guatemala and Poland are firmly committed to uphold the Assembly decision of last November 29.
Three possible courses lie before the sub-committee, which is scheduled to start work tomorrow. They are U.N. trusteeship, the British proposal to establish a “neutral” custodian administration that would take over assets and essential services of the outgoing Palestine Government and partition.
The new body is also directed to take into account which of the alternatives “will commend itself to the Arab and Jewish communities,” whether the proposal’s workable and can be implemented, and what its approximate cost will be. No time limit was set for the sub-committee’s report back to the Political Committee.The sub-committee la authorized to consult representatives of the U.N. Palestine Commission, the Mandatory Power, the Arab Higher Committee, the Jewish Agency as well as secretariat and other experts on Palestine.
The Political Committee failed to accept a challenge by Andrei Gromyko to expel Arab invaders from Palestine if the United Rations seriously intended to ‘bring peace and pave the way for a lasting settlement. Gromyko attacked the British suggestion advanced yesterday by Colonial Secretary Arthur Creech-Jones. The British Plan, he declared, is a veiled attempt to sidetrack partition.
King Abdullah of Transjordan today warned the United Rations that events in Palestine will reach a “pinnacle of horror” after May 15. In a telegram received here by Secretary-General Trygve Lie, the King restated his readiness to “give the Jews to Palestine full Arab nationality to a unitary state sharing all that we share while yet enjoying a special administration in particular areas,” He deplored use-leas kiting in Palestine and declared that he was persuaded the Jewish community as a whole wishes to live in amity with the Arabs.
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