Negotiations for reaching an Arab-Jewish truce in Palestine in accordance with the decision of the U.N. Security Council were initiated today under the leadership of Dr. Alfonso Lopez, president of the Council. Moshe Shertok represented the Jewish Agency at the truce meeting and Jamal Husseini attended on behalf of the Arab Higher Committee. U.N. Secy.-Gen. Trygve Lie was also present.
Prior to discussing truce conditions, members of the Security Council met with U.S. delegate Warren Austin who emphasized the importance of securing British cooperation in bringing about the truce, especially since Sir Alan Cunningham, the Palestine High Commissioner, had taken the initiative several says ago in calling upon the Jews and the Arabs to arrange a cease-fire.
Soviet delegate Andrei Gromyko was again absent today from the informal meeting of the Security Council, but the Ukrainian delegate, Vassily Darassanko, attended. This was taken as an indication that Moscow is still aloof to the reversal of the U.N. partition decision, but is interested in watching closely America’s diplomatic maneuvers to induce the other members of the Council to agree to its trusteeship plan for Palestine.
EFFECTIVE TRUCE SEEN AS BASIS FOR TRUSTEESHIP NEGOTIATIONS
At the meeting of the Council members, Austin sought to establish the reaction of each member to the trusteeship plan, but Dr. Lopez pointed out that prior to considering trusteeship, the members must consider ways and means of implementing their resolution for reaching a truce in Palestine. He emphasized that the Jews and the Arabs appear to be very far apart on truce conditions.
The question of an effective truce as the basis for negotiations for trusteeship assumed paramount importance as the meeting proceeded. However, few of the delegates had any concrete proposals to offer. The Ukrainian delegate abstained entirely from participating in the discussions.
At the conclusion of the meeting, the French delegation issued a statement outlining the following three problems which the Security Council must solve before voting on the U.S. trusteeship plan: 1. Designation of the trustee states which are willing to assume military responsibility for the plans; 2. Securing Arab-Jewish agreement on the question of Jewish immigration in order to avoid the “tragic consequences” of immigration after the expiration of the mandate; 3. Creation of an interim police force in Palestine to serve during the transition period until the U.N. Governor would assume control.
The French statement said that the Council members must exert every effort to overcome these problems in order to clear the way for acceptance of the trusteeship proposal at the special Palestine session of the U.N. General Assembly which opens on April 16.
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