COMMISSION ON PALESTINE

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25178, 8 May 1947, Page 7

COMMISSION ON PALESTINE

U.S. Proposal To UNO SEVEN COUNTRIES SUGGESTED

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, May 8. The United States to-night proposed tb the United Nations that a neutral commission of seven countries—Canada, Czechoslovakia, Persia, Reru, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Uruguayshould be appointed to inquire into the Palestine situation and report to the General Assembly in September. Earlier, the Soviet delegation disclosed that it would oppose the British and American plan to exclude the five big Powers from the investigating committee. Faced with a threat by the Arab States to boycott the United Nations debate on Palestine, the General Assembly’s Political Committee decided to-day to hear an Arab as well as a Jewish spokesman. The committee passed a resolution sponsored by the United States and Argentina giving the Jewish Agency and the Arab Higher Committee equal opportunity to appear before the committee. The committee had received a cablegram from the Arab committee withdrawing its request for a hearing on the ground that the Assembly had discriminated against it. Mahmoud Hassan, Pasha (Egypt) told tile committee that his delegation would neither speak nor vote until the Assembly’s attitude changed. The Arab States did not recognise the legality of the British mandate and therefore did not recognise the Jewish Agency, which was established under the mandate. 14 Pdlitica ,l Coihmittee XISO established a Small sub-commift.ee to recommend whether other Jewish and Arab groups shduld be heard.