The efforts of Maj. Gen. E.L.M. Burns, chief of staff of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization in Palestine, to ease Israel-Egypt tensions along the Gaza frontier through the talks begun at the Gaza border this week must not “end in failure,” Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold declared today.
At his first press conference here following the U.N.’s tenth anniversary celebration in San Francisco, the United Nations chief discounted the possibility that Gen. Burns’ pacification efforts might have to be transferred to the Security Council because no success has been achieved yet.
“I refuse to believe those talks will end in failure,” Mr. Hammarskjold declared. “Success is necessary as a demonstration by the governments.” Transfer of the talks to the Security Council is considered by Mr. Hammarskmold as an “alternative” which is “not envisaged at this point because amelioration is forthcoming.”
The Secretary-General, for the first time, announced himself flatly in favor of retaining Gen. Burns in his present position. While Gen. Burns’ tenure was theoretically to have terminated today, since officially the post became vacant on July 1, 1954, the contract with Burns had actually been signed August 17, according to the Secretary-General. “I still believe in rotation,” he said, “But as things stand now, as they are shaping up, I hope we can continue his services.”
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