The long-awaited statement of the United sates on the question of sending an international force to Palestine to back the lamentation of the U.N. partition decision was delivered today at the Security Council which opened its discussion of the U.S. delegation at the United Nations, emended:
1. A committee of the Council comprised of the Big Five should be established look at once into the question of the possible threats to international peace “using in connection with the Palestine question.”
2. The Security Council should, through this committee, consult at once with U.N. Palestine Commission, the Mandatory Power and the representatives of the wish and Arab communities in Palestine, in order “to get an agreement, on the basis the General Assembly recommendation, for the underlying political difficulty” in lamenting the partition plan.
3. The Security Council should accept the tasks “assigned to it by the Generally Assembly” in connection with the Palestine plan.
4. The Security Council should call upon governments and peoples, “Particularly in and around Palestine, ” to take all possible action to prevent or reduce the borders now occurring in Palestine.
DRAWS DISTINCTION BETWEEN “KEEPING PEACE” AND “ENFORCING PARTITION”
In making these recommendations, Senator Austin emphasized that the United States Government makes a distinction between “Keeping the peace” and “enforcing {SPAN}##tition.” Under the provisions of the U.N. Charter, he said, the Security Council a take action to prevent aggression against Palestine from outside. By these same ##ears, the Council can take action to prevent threat to international peace and purity from inside Palestine, he declared.{/SPAN}”But,” the head of the American delegation emphasized, “this action must be ?rected solely to the maintenance of international peace. In other words, the Council’s action is directed to keeping the peace and not to enforcing partition.”
If the Security Council should decide that it is necessary to use armed force maintain international peace in this situation, the United States would be ready consult with other nations, as provided for in the Charter, with a view to taking ##tion to maintain international peace, Senator Austin announced, Such consultation, added, would be required since no agreement has yet been reached making forces sailable to the Security Council under Article 43 of the Charter.
The charter of the United Nations,” Mr. Austin said, “does not empower the security Council to enforce a political settlement whether it is pursuant to a recommendation of the General Assembly or of the Council itself.” Admitting that the situation in Palestine “does not permit any further delay,” Senator Austin told the security Council that the United States, as a member of the U.N., would continue to seal with this problem “in conjunction with other members.”
“U.S. policy will not be unilateral,” he stated. “It will conform to and be in support of the United Nations action on Palestine.” Attempts to frustrate the recommendation of the General Assembly by threat or use of force or by incitement to force on the part of the states outside Palestine are contrary to the Charter, he added.
Declaring that there no reason for “excessive pessimism,” merely because the question was complicated, Senator Austin suggested that the consultations of his proposed Big Five committee should be held in New York, “in order that the Council itself may be kept closely advised at all stages.”
CREECH-JONES SAYS BRITAIN WILL NOT IMPOSE U.N. PLAN BY FORCE
British Colonial Secretary Arthur Creech-Jones, addressing the Council, emphasized that the British Government refuses “eight individually or in association with others to impose the United Nation play by force.” He announced that his government will abstain from voting on the issue of enforcing partition through the security Council. He said that the partition resolution as adopted by the general assembly “was not always realistically drafted.”
British public opinion, he asserted, would not permit new “expenditure of life and treasure” nor the use of British forces “to impose a policy in Palestine which ###ne or another of the parties is determined to resist.” The general security position in Palestine, he said, has degenerated seriously since the partition resolution ##lue “to lack of restraint by both communities inside Palestine, aggravated by activities of groups beyond the borders, by the intrusion of armed Arab bands, and on the Jewish side by the continuance of illegal immigration.”
Karel Lisicky, chairman of the U.N. Palestine Commission, made a passionate plea for the dispatch of an adequate non-Palestinian armed force to Palestine. The establishment of a militia there and the sending of a U.N. governor the Jerusalem would not be enough, he said. The international armed force must be made available no in ## symbolical form, but in effective, adequate strength, he insisted.
Dwelling at great length on the situation which exists now in Jerusalem, the chairman of the Palestine Commission emphasized that even if the U.N. Governor has at his disposal a highly-trained, competent and competent and efficient police corps after the termination of the Mandate, it will not be enough, since Jerusalem depends upon the outer world.
JERUSALEM WOULD BE DOOMED WITHOUT FREE COMMUNICATION, LISICKY WARNS
“Without free communication with the outer world and without assured supply of the primary necessities of life, Jerusalem would be doomed even with a U.N. governor at its head, “Lisicky warned.” Free communication and assured supplies necessarily require an effective control over a substantial part of the area of the Arab state. Such a control can be obtained only through an efficient pacification of the area in one way or another.”
Emphasizing that the Palestine Commission feels “deep apprehension” about the fate of Jerusalem in the coming months, the Commission chairman said: “May I be
Lowed to close this part of my report with a cry from my heart ‘lest we forget Jerusalem, lest we forget Jerusalem.'”
IMPOSITION OF CONTROL IN “INFLAMMABLE SPOTS” IN PALESTINE DEMANDED
Outlining other aspects of the difficulties of carrying out the partition decision without adequate outside armed forces, Lisicky said that the establishment of economic union as provided in the partition resolution is also impossible without cooperation of all three territorial entities involved. The present situation Palestine, he said, requires either peaceful arrangement or the imposition of an effective control by sufficient outside forces in “highly inflammable spots” in the country.
“No militia could provide any remedy for it,” Lisicky warned. “On the contrary, what is called for is to prevent exactly the clashes between militias taking the right – as they may see it – in their hands,” He concluded by emphasizing that. the five lonely pilgrims cannot be permitted to remain lonely if their pilgrimage to have any effect.”
Syrian delegate Paris El Khouri, in an openly anti-Jewish speech, told the security Council “not to play with fire,” He claimed that the Council was an independent organ of the U.N, endowed with complete authority to act according to the revisions of the U.N. Charter, irrespective of any recommendations or instructions given to it by the General Assembly. Ha urged the Security Council to scrutinize the Assembly’s partition decision, and demanded a clear ruling by the Council on the legality of that decision and the legality of the procedure by which the Palestine commission was elected in open ballot.
“The Jews,” he said, “gave the General Assembly assurances that the Arabs will cooperate. They should therefore bear the consequences of their assurances,” failure to implement the partition decision would not spell the collapse of the United Nations, he asserted, adding that the “Assembly is not a world government.”
JEWISH AGENCY SEATED AT COUNCIL; JEWS DISPLEASED WITH P.S. STAND
At the opening of the Council meeting the question was raised as to whether the Jewish Agency should be admitted to participate in the session during the discussion. The Council voted in favor of admission. Also seated at the Council were representative of Lebanon and Egypt who, as neighbors of Palestine, requested permission to participate.
The U.S. policy on implementation, as outlined by Sen. Austin, was interpreted in Jewish and other circles here as an attempt by the American Government to drag out the Palestine issue. Jewish Agency leaders refused, however, to comment on the proposal, declaring that they intend to study its implications before making any statement.
Sen. Vicente J. Francisco, Philippine member of the Palestine Commission, today announced his resignation from that body because of pressing business in relation with his duties as a legislator and his legal practice. He will remain at Lake Success until a successor arrives from his native land.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
