MEDIATOR TO FIX DEADLINE FOR CEASE FIRE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22655, 4 June 1948, Page 5

MEDIATOR TO FIX DEADLINE FOR CEASE FIRE

(N.Z.P.A.—It eut er—Copyright.)

(10 a.m.) NEW YORK, June 2, The Security Council yesterday instructed its mediator in Palestine, Count Folke Bernadotte to set the day and hour of the cease fire In the Holy Land.

The council suggested that four weeks' armistice should begin within three days. No formal vote was taken, but seven nations, including the United States, approved of the instruction.

Rusia did not debate the auestion, but M Gromyko said he would abstain on the question of sending an instruction to Count Bernadotte. Count Bernadotte was asked to set the exact hour in consultation with the Jews and Arabs, both of whom had accepted the armistice proposal.

The council ruled that their replies were. unconditional. Count Bernadott-e cabled the council stating it might be "some days’ before the cease-fire controls could be affected. Study of Control Problems Faris el Khoury, the Syrian delegate, who is serving ns the council president for June, has called another meeting of the council for today to study the problem of controls to be used during the armistice. Earlier in the Security Council’s meeting, Jewish and Arab viewpoints clashed on the political Issue before it. Mr. Aubrey Eban, the Jewish representative at the council said: “We enter into the truce with the belief that political and territorial integrity is an immutable fact.” Jamil Husseini, tor the Arab Higher Committee immediately replied: “It is my duty to say that The Arabs in Palestine cannot enter into any political discussion on the basis ot a Jewish State in Palestine,” Sir Alexander Cadogan, Britain, in reply to a question by Mr. Eban, said the British Government entirely agreeu that the arms ban should apply to stocks held by foreign governments inside any of the Middle East countries concerned. Slight Chance of Solution The United Press correspondent at Lake Success says: “United Nations observers see only a slight chance that Jewish and Arab differences will be solved during an unstable and temporary halt in the fighting, but the council decided to grab at the chance to halt war in the Holy Land, even If only temporarily.” The British spokesman, commenting or, Israel charges that the Arabs han violated the council's cease-fire appeal, said the council had never fixed an hour for laying down of arms, but had provided only that both sides should accept, the armistice proposa! by l! p.m. on June 1. The Israeli interpretation under which orders were issued to its troops to stop firing at that hour (3 a.m, Israeli time on June 2) was a misunderstanding of the terms. CYPRUS JEWS PROTEST GO a.m.) LONDON. June 3. A committee representing the 24,000 Jewish illegal immigrants detained on Cyprus has sent a protest to the United Nations against the British decision to susoend the regular quota of releases to Palestine during the four weeks' truce, says Reuter's correspondent in Nicosia.