Britain Modifies Palestine Resolution In U.N.

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27986, 5 June 1956, Page 11

Britain Modifies Palestine Resolution In U.N.

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 8 p.m.) NEW YORK, June 1. Britain today revised its Palestine peace resolution in an attempt to meet Arab objections about the role of the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Dag Hammarskjold.

Arab diplomats had criticised a paragraph in the British plan calling for Mr Hammarskjold to continue his good offices. They said it was too broadly worded and left it possible for the Secretary-General to have a free hand in reopening the entire question of peace in Palestine.

The British delegate, Sir Pierson Dixon, agreed at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council to revise this section.

Instead of simply asking Mr Hammarskjold to continue his good offices, he changed it to make the request for “good offices with a view to full implementation of the council resolution of April 4 and full compliance with the armistice agreement.”

Sir Pierson Dixon assured the Arabs and the Council that there was no trick or catch in the British plan.

He said the resolution he sponsored did not intend to ask Mr Hammarskjold to embark upon a broad initiative beyond the framework of the Palestine armistice agreements.

Mr Hammarskjold’s future efforts for peace in Palestine would thus be limited to the mandate unanimously voted him by the Security Council on April 4 when it sent him to Palestine to survey compliance with the 1949 Armistice Agreements and to arrange measures for reducing tension along the demarcation lines. The Arabs objected tu another povision of the British resolution calling for full freedom of movement for United Nations truce observers “in all areas” along the armistice demarcation lines in the demilitarised zones and in the territory defined by the truce agreements as defensive areas. They said that this would give the truce observers the right to roam without restriction. Sir Pierson Dixon agreed to delete the words “in all areas.”

He refused, however, to yield to Arab requests to delete a paragraph in the preamble citing the need for the creation of conditions in which a peaceful settlement on a mutually acceptable basis could be made in Palestine.