U.S. Abandonment of Partition Has Not Changed Bristian’s Palestine Policy, Bevin Says

The British Government has not changed its policy on Palestine despite the abandonment of petition by the United States, Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin told the House of Commons today, “Neither does anything that the Assembly of the United Nations may do affect our coming out of Palestine,” he added.

The Foreign Minister injected his remarks in a Commons debate in which Colo##al Secretary Arthur Creech-Jones reiterated that Britain would end the Palestine Mandate May 15 and evacuate its troops by Aug. 1. “Britain is ready to hand the Mandate over to whatever body the U.N. decided on,” Bevin declared.

Earlier, Creech-Jones asserted that it was easy to blame Britain for the present Palestine situation, but it was also easy to forget that the U.N. Palestine commission was charged with a responsibility that it did not have to means of discharging –a task which he called “somewhat unreal.”

The U.N. resolution paid little heed to the “enormous problem” which confronted the Palestine Government not only in winding up its administration of the country, but also in the maintenance of law and order, he said.He denied an allegation that Britain had behaved disrespectfully to the U.K., declaring that the government had tried to meet every wish of the Palestine Commission.

Although the Cabinet yesterday discussed the present Palestine situation, the question of the U.S. trusteeship proposal was net raised, a Foreign Office spokesman said today. He added that it is not likely to be discussed in its present form, ?ince it is not precise enough.

Persistent rumors are circulating here that one or “more precise” forms of trusteeship that Britain would be interested in considering would be to offer Britain the role of trustee under United Nations sponsorship.