U.S. Agrees to Accept Soviet Amendments to Palestine Proposal at Security Council

Sen. Warren R. Austin, chief American delete at the U.N. Security Council, today agreed to amend the U.S. resolution on Palestine and adjust it to the Soviet resolution which recommends the handing over the Palestine issue to the Big Five instead of establishing a committee of the security Council as envisaged in the original U.S. proposal,

The U.S. delegate also accepted a Soviet amendment that the Big Five, after igniting among themselves pa whether the present situation in Palestine constitutes threat to peace, should submit a report to the Security Council within ten to 15 ##s, The Soviet amendments were also adopted by the representative of Belgium who 1 earlier introduced his own amendment which would free the Security Council from if commitment to implement, the General Assembly’s Palestine partition decision.

In suggesting these amendments, Soviet delegate Andrei Gromyko made it par. that he opposes the provision in the American proposal which suggests that the ##g Five should hold consultations with the U.N. Palestine Commission, Britain, the Arabs and the Jews, Such consultations, he said, might prevent speedy decision.He also requested that the Big Five “be given a free hand in their talks.

DEFEAT COLOMBIAN PROPOSAL TO ADJOURN DISCUSSION ON PALESTINE ISSUE

The acceptance of Gromyko’s proposals by the U.S. delegation followed theintroduction of a motion by the delegate from Colombia urging the Security Council adjourn its session until next Thursday, This would, have meant losing another {SPAN}##ek{/SPAN} and dragging out the Palestine’ issue at the Council for a considerably longer {SPAN}##e,{/SPAN} while immediate action is considered necessary, It was pointed out.

Sen. Austin spoke in opposition to the Colombian proposal, which was deflated by a vote of five to two, with four delegates abstaining. Columbia and Syria ##ted for the proposal, with the Unite State, U.S.S.R., Ukraine, Canada and China faints and Prance, Belgium, Britain and Argentina abstaining.

Sen. Austin also announced that while the U.S. was strongly opposed to the Again amendment, ha would not vote against it since, he said, this would mean evoking the veto. Instead, the U.S. will abstain tern voting.

DR. SILVER APPEALS FOR IMMEDIATE ORGANIZATION AND ARMING OF MILITIA

Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, Chairman of the American section of the Jewish Agency dressing today’s session of the Security Council, indicated that the Jews may set {SPAN}##{/SPAN} their own state in Palestine after May 15, When the British Mandate expires, and offend it with their own forces should the Security Council not take the necessary {SPAN}##eps{/SPAN} to implement the partition decision of t he General Assembly.

We fully respect the authority of the United Nations, ” Dr. Silver said. But if it is unable to carry out its own decision, and, as a consequence, the Jewish community of Palestine is confronted with the threat of annihilation, it will be compelled by the consideration of sheer survival, not to speak of the preservation of its rights, to take all necessary measures which the situation will call for. “

Dr. Silver appealed to the Council to make earnest representations to the British Government to permit “the immediate organization of an adequate Jewish stats militia to protect the lives of the people of the new Jewish stats. “It was,” he said, fen elementary moral obligation of the United Nations to do this,” in view of its partition decision, and to provide arms for the defenders of the partition plan. He emphasized that the organization and equipment of the Jewish militia was now more argent than the sending of a non-Palestinian armed force lay the Security Council to Palestine.

The Jewish people, Dr. Silver declared, had not wanted partition, but accepted it and regarded the plan as binding. They assumed that the dates in it would ho met, the emphasized. He pointed out that for the last 30 years innumerable attempts had been made to solve the Palestine problem and all possible solutions studied, in the futile hope of reaching an agreed solution.

JEWISH AGENCY FEARS FLOW CONSULTATIONS WOULD LEAD TO DELAYS

For this reason, Dr. Silver continued, the Jewish Agency questioned the usefulness of that paragraph of the American resolution calling for new consultations aimed it conciliation. The Agency, he said, feared this would lead to delays and uncertain-?des, affording the opponents of partition an opportunity to reopen the entire question.

The United Nations, he pointed put, had decided en a course of action as well is upon a policy. Partition is not just an abstract idea nor a recommendation “which could then “be left suspended in mid-air, “he said. He stressed the fact that on May 5, the U.N. Commission would “be the only administration in Palestine, and if its authority failed there would he no regime of law, and anarchy would prevail in the country.

Dr. Silver recognized that the position taken by the United States and some per delegations that the Security Council could use armed fore only in cases of a peach or threat to the peace, and not to carry out United Nations decisions, might the “technically correct,” but this, he said, should not obscure the realities of the actuation. In adopting the partition plan, the Assembly had relied on the fullest cooperation of the Security Council, and it as a breach of peace and a threat to face which has brought this problem to the Council.Failure of the Security Council of take appropriate action would go far beyond the Palestine controversy and, would taken the whole United Nations organization, he declared.

SILVER ACCUSES BRITAIN OF BEING “UNCOOPERATIVE AND OBSTRUCTIVE”

Dr. Silver then made a detailed reply to charges aired by British Colonial Notary Arthur Creech-Jones earlier this week against the Jewish Agency In a speech before the Security Council. He accused the British Government of being “uncooperative and obstructive,” pointing out that it had refused to open a port for Jewish immigration on. February 1; that it had refused to permit the U.N. Commission to enter Palestine in ample time to prepare properly for its duties; and that it had rejected to plan for a progressive transfer of power in Palestine.

In a legal analysis of the partition decision of the General Assembly, Dr. Silver denied that the Assembly made a mere recommendation. He supported that part of the U.S, proposal that the Council should accept the request addressed to it by the general Assembly as a starting point for effective action to implement partition.

French delegate Alexadre Parodi, speaking after Ur, Silver, said the Security Council had the right to request both the Arabs and the Jews to “modify their ways.