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It will be noticed that the resolution also deals with the scope of the subject-matter on which the Jewish and Arab organizations would be permitted to make representations, and, indeed, the Committee felt so confident that it had met the Arab point of view that the utmost attention was devoted to this subject. The meeting for that day closed on a note of satisfaction expressed by the delegate for the Lebanon, who thanked .the Committee for the generous sentiments expressed towards Arab participation. On the following morning, however, the Committee's complacency was rudely shaken by an announcement by the Indian delegate, during the course of a debate on quite another subject, that the resolution passed on the previous day was not likely to cause the Arab Higher Committee to reverse the withdrawal of its application to participate. The Jewish Agency had been invited by the General Assembly, but the Arab Higher Committee only by the First Committee. He requested and moved that it be proposed to the President of the General Assembly " that a plenary meeting be called at once to consider the following resolution, ' That the First Committee grant a hearing to the Arab Higher Committee on the question before the Committee.' " This motion was not debated at great length, probably because of the atmosphere of urgency and exasperation about the whole situation. The delegate of South Africa expressed the point of view that such a procedure would reduce the proceedings of the United Nations to a farce, the Committee having passed the resolution and then proceeding to the Assembly to ask authority to do so. The Australian delegate, on the other hand, expressed the opposite point of view, that the whole difficulty had arisen from the closing of the debate in the plenary session when the course of that debate had changed completely, and that the Assembly was itself responsible for the situation with which it was faced. He urged that the Committee should take the graceful course and retrace its steps, placing the Arab and Jewish organizations on exactly the same plane. On a show of hands the resolution was carried by a large majority, although nearly half the delegates abstained, as the fairest way out of a situation that should never have arisen. The New Zealand delegation voted for the resolution. The President of the General Assembly, on taking the chair vacated by the Chairman of the First Committee, refused to call a plenary session as requested unless he had the support of the General Committee, and a long session of the latter committee ensued, from which there emerged the following compromise resolution : " The General Assembly affirms that the decision of the First Committee to grant a hearing to the Arab Higher Committee gives a correct interpretation of the Assembly's intention." This resolution was adopted by the Assembly by 39 votes in favour, 1 against, and 11 abstentions.