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New U.N. Truce Chief Arrives in Israel; Expects “no Miracles”

August 20, 1954
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Maj. Gen. E.L. M. Burns of Canada, new chief of the United Nations truce supervision organization, arrived here today to take up his post. He told newsmen that he hopes for gradual improvement in the Israel-Arab situation but expects “no miracles. ” He will first study the situation, visiting the capitals of all the states signatory to the various Arab-Israel armistice agreements, before he takes up his duties actively, he announced.

Gen. Burns said that he and his predecessor, Maj. Gen, Vagn Bennike, will go first to Cairo to talk to Egyptian officials, after which they will visit the capitals of the other Arab League states. Gen. Burns pledged to continue the talks begun by Gen. Bennike in an effort to ease the tensions between the contending governments involved in the Palestine situation.

Meanwhile, Gen. Bennike continued the series of discussions he had begun in an effort to pave the way for his successor’s assumption of the truce supervision job. Today, Gen Bennike conferred with Walter Eytan, director-general of the Israel Foreign Ministry. Then he went across the line into Jordanian territory, where he talked with foreign office officials there.

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