Zionist Actions Committee Meeting in Closed Session to Study Unscop Recommendations

A closed session of the Zionist Actions Committee this evening began consideration of the report of the U.N. Palestine committee. The delegates will hear Moshe Shertok, chief of the Jewish Agency political department, who has just returned from Geneva, where UNSCOP wrote its report.

The Actions Committee, which was scheduled to adjourn tomorrow morning, will probably continue to meet through tomorrow evening or Wednesday, with an all-night session possible. The American delegates have postponed their departure to enable their participation. A meeting of the executive may be held here following adjournment of the Actions Committee.

Although there will be no official comment before the Committee meets, the unofficial reception was mixed, depending on the individual delegate’s attitude to partition. One prominent delegate pointed out that the UNSCOP report was significant for two reasons: it recognizes the necessity for a Jewish state and admits the Jews are entitled to the land they have developed. There was some dissatisfaction, however, as to the boundaries of the Jewish state.

SET UP 13-MAN COMMITTEE TO ADVISE EXECUTIVE ON U.N. MATTERS

The Political Commission yesterday established a thirteen-member committee to advise the executive on U.N. matters. The members, who will be named by their own parties, include four General Zionists, three Mapai representatives, two Mizrachi representatives and one each from the Hashomer Hatzair, the Revisionists, the Achduth Avodah and the Aliyah Hadasha.

The committee is to meet under the following conditions: first, after the official publication of the UNSCOP report, which may mean in Switzerland in about ten days; or, secondly, during the U.N. General Assembly sessions on Palestine; or, thirdly, at any other time decided by the executive; or fourthly, when a majority of the committee members decide they wish to meet.

Deputy delegates will also be named. It was decided that the members will not have the right to negotiate privately with U.N. delegates or Government officials. Spokesmen of the Ichud, Mizrachi and General Zionist parties warned that private negotiations in the past had widened the disunity in the ranks of the Zionist movement.

The Commission adopted a proposal to set the next meeting of the Actions Committee now and subsequently decided that the Committee should meet within a month following the U.N. General Assembly discussions on Palestine.

Abraham Granovsky, director of the Jewish National Fund, reporting to the Financial Commission, disclosed that the J.N.F. will have redeemed more than 50,000 dunams of land this year despite the restrictions imposed by the White Paper. Granovsky pointed out that in addition to the land-purchasing program, the Jewish National Fund had entered into other fields such as providing supplies and funds for new settlements. Granovsky said that 29 new settlements had been established on J.N.F. land this year. Describing the Negev water irrigation project, he revealed that the undertaking will require $3,000,000, half of which will be provided by the Agency and half by the J.N.F. Disclosing that the income this year of the Fund will reach $18,000,000, Granovsky said expenditures will come to $24,000,000. Next year, he added, the J.N.F. will require $32,000,000.

The Financial Commission has worked out details for a Control Office and it is expected that Emil Shmorak will be appointed Comptroller, with deputies from the Mizrachi and the Mapai to aid him. The Commission decided to adopt a three-month budget pending the final outcome of the U.N. deliberations on Palestine.