Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1948. PALESTINE ISSUE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 69, Issue 50, 8 December 1948, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1948. PALESTINE ISSUE

In the United Nations Political Committee, Mr Harold Beeley withdrew Britain’s specific endorsement of the plan formulated 1 fey Count Folke Bernadette shortly before he was assassinated. In , doing so, Mr Beeley said that the change had been made to be “more acceptable to the committee,” but insisted that the withdrawal of flat endorsement of the recommendations did not imply acceptance of other proposals. Britain’s latest action makes it difficult to understand what her present policy in regard to Palestine really is. There has been an attempt of late to bring British policy more into line with that of the United States, but to do that fully would mean that Britain would hate to forsake the Arabs. There can be no questioning her desire to see an amicable settlement reached, but this can never be achieved by a constant changing of attitude. We know exactly where Newj Zealand stands in the matter, for her policy was stressed a day or so ago by the Prime Minister, speaking in the Palestine debate iri. Piaris, when he said it was impossible to nullify or circumvent the partition resolution of last year. Any reversal of this resolution would mean that the United Nations was bankrupt and there is a good deal of truth in that. As Mr Fraser also remarked, the only way to secure a settlement was for the Jews and Arabs to negotiate. Another cease-fire has been agreed to in Jerusalem,, but how long it will last remains to be seen. The Palestine issue has dragged on loiig enough, and it is time the United Nations got really down to the job. The longer the argument drags on, the more will the prestige of Uno suffer. The Arabs and Jews, of course, must bear some of the blame for the failure to find a solution, because each believed it could be found in military action, and this also has failed. Then, too, the United States, must accept some blame, for the reason that the incidence of the Presidential election tied the hands of the American delegation at Paris, which, perforce, had to listen and to wonder which of confusing and conflicting voices across the Atlantic would prove to be authoritative on the question of United States Palestine policy. Even when the election issue was settled it was by no means clear where the United States stood, since, by saying during the campaign that he stood by the Assembly’s partition plan of November, 1947, President Truman was in conflict with his own Secretary of State, Mr Marshall, who said last September that the very different Bernadotte plan must be pursued. Uno must make a decision and make it soon, and then proceed to see that it is implemented.