U.N. Commission Wants Israel and Arabs to Modify Their Territorial Demands

At the final meeting today of the three members of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine–representing the United States, France and Turkey–a decision was reached to request their governments to instruct their Ambassadors at Tel Aviv and in the Arab capitals to make the strongest requests to the states concerned to send fully qualified delegations to New York when the Commission resumes its sessions October 15.

They also requested their governments to make urgent representations to insure that those Arab and Israel delegations go to New York with new or modified instructions, particularly on the issue of the future territorial boundaries of Israel. They also emphasized once again their desire to see modifications in the respective attitudes of the Israelis and the Arabs, as outlined in the replies of the several states to the Commission’s questionnaire issued last week.

Meanwhile, the U.N. Commission is preparing its first report on its activities for submission to the General Assembly which reconvenes at Lake Success on Tuesday. In this connection, the Commission members have decided that they would not include the full text of the Arabs’ demand for Israel territory or the text of the Israel claim covering its future frontiers.

It has been merely decided, instead, to state the replies which the Commission has received, and to make the point that its members are seeking to obtain modifications of those responses. It is thought here that were the Commission to publish the full texts, particularly the Arab position, that would reveal the full extant of the gap existing on the territorial issues between the two parties to the dispute. In other words, the Commission is now concerned with minimizing, rather than overplaying, the nature of that gap.