U.N. Secretary-General Trygve Lie said today that he is negotiating with Judge Emil Sandstroem, chairman of the U.N. Palestine committee, to make available to the public the 1,000-page documentation prepared by the U.N. secretariat for use by the committee. Meanwhile, Lie told his press conference, copies of the documents have been given to the Jewish Agency and the Arab Higher Committee.
Replying to charges by Syrian delegate Faris el Khouri that the three volumes of documents were biased in favor of the Zionists, Lie said that they were “factual accounts of history.” He reported that the Arab Higher Committee and the Jewish Agency had been shown the material and told that corrections would be made if necessary, but the Arabs had made no protest.
Mr. Lie was under fire from the press today for the committee’s “closed door” policy. Most of its meetings up to now have been held in camera, although the secretariat succeeded yesterday in obtaining agreement that most meetings in Palestine will be public.
The Secretary-General said that the decision as to whether sessions should be public or private usually rested with the committee concerned, but added that he was attempting to secure full public meetings. He disclosed that he was negotiating for release of “restricted” documents prepared for the inquiry group.
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