The United Nations Trusteeship Council opened its session here this afternoon with the question of settling the status of Jerusalem as one of the major points on its agenda. A report on the Jerusalem issue will be submitted to the Council tomorrow by its outgoing president, Roger Garreau of France.
Although at its opening session today the Council decided to hear Mr. Garreau’s report, discussion of the report will be postponed–probably for a week–at the request of the Iraqi delegate. Mr. Garreau told the Council that he would make “an unfortunately brief report” on his mission in connection with the Jerusalem problem and would distribute to the members the memorandum he received from the Israel Government with regard to the Council’s statute on Jerusalem.
It is generally believed that the Council will decide that it can do nothing about the Jerusalem problem except refer the entire matter back to the U.N. General Assembly meeting in September. The American delegation has indicated that it will favor such a move. Meanwhile, members of the Council displayed great interest in Israel’s dramatic new proposal for a United Nations regime for the Holy Places of Jerusalem. However, the delegates agreed that the Council was not empowered to discuss the Israel proposal since it is still operating under the decision of the General Assembly of last year to place the whole Jerusalem area under international trusteeship.
Members of the American delegation today stated that although the new Israel proposal can be considered a “step in the right direction,” certain parts of it are still “vague.” They said that the United States is still supporting the plan of the Palestine Conciliation Commission which calls for a modified internationalization of Jerusalem. At the same time, they gave the impression that the American Government may favor a compromise between the Commission’s plan and the new Israel proposal.
Max Henriquez-Urena of the Dominican Republic was elected president of the Trusteeship Council at today’s session, succeeding Mr. Garreau. The Soviet delegate walked out of the session after failing to get the Council to unseat the Chinese Nationalist representative.
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