U.S. Accepts Partition Plan,For Palestine

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 October 1947, Page 6

U.S. Accepts Partition Plan,For Palestine

NEW YORK, Octobter .il.

“The United States supports the basic principles of the inquiry commission’s unanimous recommendations and the majority plan providing for partition and immigration,” said Mr Herschel Johnson (United States) to the United Nations General Assembly’s Palestine Committee today.

“The United States considers, however, that certain amendments and modifications will have to be made in the majority plan to give effect more accurately to the principles on which the plan is based. My delegation believes that certain geographical modifications must be made. For example, Jaffa should-be included in the Arab state, because it is predominantly an Arab city.

“The United States suggests that the General Assembly may wish to provide that all Palestine inhabitants, regardless of citizenship or place of residence, be guaranteed access to ports, to water and to power facilities on a non-discriminatory basis, that constitutional guarantees regarding equal economic opportunity be provided for Arabs and Jews alike, and that the powers of the proposed joint economic board be strengthened. “The United States is willing to participate in a United Nations programme to assist the parties involved in the establishment of a workable political settlement in Palestine. The problem of internal law and order during the transition period might require the establishment of a special constabulary or police force recruited on a volunteer basis by the United Nations.” Violence Must Cease

Mr Johnson added: “In the final analysis, the problem of making any solution work rests with Palestine’s people. If new political institutions are to endure, they must provide for the early assumption by the people themselves of responsibility for their own domestic order.

“Acts of violence against constituted authority and rival elements of the local population have appeared in Palestine over many years and have greatly increased the difficulties of finding a workable solution to this complex problem. Certain elements have resorted to force to obtain their particular aims. “Obviously, this violence must cease if independence is to be more than an empty phrase in the Holy Land.

“If this committee favours the majority plans and principles, we should establish a sub-committee to work out the details of a programme which we could submit to the Assembly. “The recommendations reached by the Assembly will represent the world’s collective opinion. The problem has so far defied solution because the parties primarily interested have been unable to reach a basis of agreement. This is a problem in the solution of which world opinion can be most helpful. “The problem is so urgent that the Assembly must recommend a solution during the present session. Rights Of Arabs Mr Faris el Khoury (Syria), who followed Mr Johnson in the debate, said it was evident that the United States did not intend to respect the principles of the Charter. No election season ever passed without American political parties making promises to enhance and support Zionist dreams. The fundamental rights of the Arabs of Palestine were endangered by the partition plan. The Arabs of other countries earnestly hoped that the General Assembly would find a 'workable solution, based on the United Nations Charter, which would 'not shed innocent blood, but they were not likely to capitulate to any scheme which would put a foreign intruder in Palestine. Nor were they ready to evacuate a soil which was watered by centuries of their blood. The United States proposal for an armed constabulary was a challenge to the Arab countries, and they must accept it. ... The committee adjourned until Monday.