Warning of imminent chaos in the Middle East, from which only Russia stands to gain, 19 distinguished American leaders made public this week-end a series of proposals submitted to President Eisenhower as the basis of a new United States policy, to be carried out with United Nations assistance, and designed to pacify the explosive situation.
A copy of the 171-page memorandum entitled “Security and the Middle East” was sent to Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold, with a request that it be brought to the consideration of the appropriate organs of the United Nations, as well as to United Nations delegates.
The signatories oppose arms offers or grants now either by the United States or our Allies to the Arab governments on the score that such arms would be used either “against their own people, should rebellion against starvation lead to violence,” or “against Israel to divert the Arab people from the real source of their anguish–their incredible poverty.”
Instead of the present concentration on arms and military alliances, the signatories urge a firm offer to the Arab world of large-scale assistance, beginning with a $350,000,000 United States pledge to a $500,000,000 United Nations fund to develop the resources of the Middle East. This offer should be made conditional on the acceptance of two prior agreements: 1. Settlement of the Palestine war. 2. Permanent resettlement of Arab refugees in Arab countries.
“In advance of the 1954 session of the General Assembly, the United States should make known to the United Nations and to the Arab states its view that “the only feasible and fruitful solution of the Arab refugee problem is through resettlement in Arab countries, ” the memorandum urged. Further, that the United States, which has thus far supplied more than one-half the funds for the welfare of Arab refugees, shall state its readiness to continue such support, stipulating that funds so given be earmarked for a permanent resettlement program under the U.N. at a cost of $300,000,000.
Both the Arab countries and Israel should be asked to participate in this program, Israel through a fair contribution to the $300,000,000 resettlement fund by way of compensation for abandoned Arab land in Israel. The Arab countries through the assignment of tracts of land in their territories now unpopulated or under-populated but capable of being developed to support a aubstantial population.
The resettlement program, as envisaged, would be conducted by a United Nations resettlement agency, whose function would be both to arrange for the orderly transfer of the refugees and their retraining as necessary.
The signatories include: Dr. Henry A. Atkinson, general secretary, The Church Peace Union; Frank W. Buxton, former member, Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry; Dr. Donald B. Cloward, executive secretary, Council on Christian Social Progress of the American Baptist Convention; Dr. Frederick May Eliot, president, American Unitarian Association; the Rt. Rev. Charles K. Gilbert, Retired Episcopal Bishop of New York; the Rt. Rev. Henry W. Hobson, Episcopal Bishop of Southern Ohio; the Very Rev. Ivan Lee Holt, Methodist Bishop of Missouri, who is president of the World Methodist Council.
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