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United Nations Stalled on Safeguarding Jerusalem; Appoints New Sub-committee

May 12, 1948
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After hearing repeated and urgent pleas for effective action to safeguard Jerusalem in the four days remaining before May 15, the United Nations Political Committee took the usual course today by creating still another Assembly sub-committee to consider further measures for the protection of the city and its inhabitants.

The final vote was 35 to 1 with 11 nations abstaining, including Russia and the Eastern European bloc. Guatemala was the only member to vote against the proposal on the showdown ballot. A Guatemalan amendment to the resolution, passed with ## nations abstaining, provides for the new sub-committee to consult with both the Jewish Agency and the Palestine Arab Higher Committee before submitting its recommendation.

Membership of the new sub-committee is identical with that of the Trusteeship council except for the addition of Brazil, Iran and Sweden. In its original form, this proposed by Francis B. Sayre of the United States, the resolution would have treated a sub-committee composed of nations represented on the Trusteeship Council, which grappled; with the problem of Jerusalem for two weeks without reaching one significant agreement. The addition of three non-members was suggested by Alexandre ?arodi of France and accepted by the U.S. delegation.

Somyon K. Tsarapkin of the Soviot Union said the new group would be nothing more than the Trusteeship Council “parading under a new name.” He also attacked the United States for “dragging out of the mothballs” its plan for a temporary trusteeship for Jerusalem which had been rejected last week by the Council itself, by Arabs and ?y Jews.

U.S. TO SUBMIT JERUSALEM TRUSTEESHIP TO NEW BODY TODAY

The American delegation will submit a four-page working paper reviving its Original proposal for Jerusalem trusteeship to the sub-committee tomorrow, British delegate John Fletcher-Cooke continued his opposition to trusteeship for Jerusalem and enjoined the Jerusalem body to take no action which might conflict with the efforts of the projected Pa0lestine Central Commission.

Sub-committee officers elected today were Gunner Hagglof of Sweden, chairman; ?asrollah Entezam of Iran, vice-chairman, and Roger Garreau of France, rapper tour. Later, the sub-committee decided to concern itself only with concrete proposals, and not with general principles, which had already been gone into thoroughly in the Trusteeship Council and other bodies.

Meetings will be open, and representatives of the Arab Higher Committee and the Jewish Agency will fee present continuously. Inasmuch as no concrete proposals had been submitted the sub-committee adjourned until tomorrow.

The sub-committee considering a solution for the entire Palestine problem spent another day in fruitless argument, with little accomplished at the end of the afternoon’s debate. The United States delegation was lukewarm to a to a suggestion that it participate in an interim agency to administer Palestine. It was generally agreed among the members that the sub-committee report to its parent body, the Political Committee, by Thursday.

The Security Council will hold a short session tomorrow to review two consular truce Commission cables and to hear commission difficulties in carrying out its task.

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