The United Nations Security Council deferred action today on a request by Count Folke Bernadotte that the United Nations appeal to the Jews and Arabs to “accept in principle the prolongation of the truce” which expires on Friday, at 2 A.M.
A move led by Sir Alexander Cadogan, of Britain, to divorce the truce extension from the debate over Bernadotte’s suggestions for creating an Arab-Jewish federation in Palestine and redrawing Israel’s borders, was vigorously opposed by Andrei Gromyko, of the Soviet Union and Dmitri Z. Manuilsky, of the Ukraine, who presided.
Manuilsky served notice that Count Bernadotte would come under sharp attack at the next Council session, which he set for tomorrow morning. He and Gromyko accused the mediator of over-stepping his authority by urging on the Jews and Arabs a Palestine solution which, in effect, would revoke the partition decision of the General Assembly.
“No sensible person can deny,” Manuilsky declared, “that there is a need to prolong the truce. But under the banner of the truce various maneuvers and schemes have been cooked up which leave at least some Security Council members dismayed.”
British delegate Cadogan, obviously alarmed by Manuilsky’s attack on Bernadotte, said he could not permit the Council discussion to end on the note struck by the Ukrainian It would be deplorable at this “critical” stage of the negotiations to convey the impression that the Council was not fully in back of the mediator, Cadogan stated. “I cannot by my silence agree that Bernadotte had exceeded his powers in the proposals he had set forth,” he added.
The United States today endorsed Count Bernadotte’s plan for entrusting the peace of Jerusalem to a force of 1,000 U.N. guards, recruited from the three nations comprising the U.N. Truce Commission. In a letter to Secretary General Trygve lie, American delegate Philip C. Jessup suggested that the U.N. should recruit a force of 333 Americans and an equal number of Belgian and French volunteers. It was understood that the U.S. would be willing to supply military equipment for such a force though it was opposed to sending members of the regular army.
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