The Soviet demand for representation on the corps of military observers assigned to Count Folke Bernadotte’s mediation staff in Palestine received a chilly reception in. the Security Council today.
The meeting of the Council adjourned until Tuesday when it became plain that the other members were not ready to decide the question. The United States alone opposed any change in, the present arrangement under which the military corps is drawn from France, Belgium, and America — the three countries comprising the Truce Commission.
Soviet delegate Andrei Gromyko had the support only of Vassili Tarasenko of the Ukraine. He made the point that the Council had never officially clarified the procedure by which the military observers were to be selected. He challenged the United States to declare on what basis it objected to “a very email group of Soviet observers taking part in the truce observance,” but received no reply.
Philip C. Jessup, who stated the American position, did not completely reject the Soviet request, “but maintained that the military observers had been sent at the request of Count Bernadette, after the Council had assigned to him the responsibility for setting up observance machinery. He added that if the Council wished to change the instructions in order to permit Soviet participation, the U.S. would be bound by that decision.
The Provisional Government of Israel called upon the U.N. today to recognize its full sovereignty and independence or jeopardize the hope that the four-week truce will become the basis of a lasting settlement. Major Aubrey Eban, in a statement issued here, said: “Israel has vindicated its statehood, not only by natural, legal and historic rights on which the statehood is based but also through its proved capacity to fulfil the obligations of the charter and its success in maintaining its integrity and holding its own with striking success against Arab attack and invasion.”
Full recognition of Israeli sovereign independence is “the only hopeful starting point in the quest for peace, Eban said. He declared that the Provisional Government in Tel Aviv had accepted “restrictions and conditions which should not have been imposed upon it” in the anticipation that Count Bernadette would not Interfere with the independence of the Jewish state while exercising his discretionary powers to control immigration.
Eban added that while the mediator’s discretionary powers go beyond the proper limits” of the Security Council cease-fire resolution adopted on Hay 29, m Tel Aviv Government had accepted this condition as consistent with its unbroken policy of compliance with the appeals and requests of the United Nations.
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.
