S/PV.275 Security Council

1 wishto announce that the meeting originally scheduled ~or tomorrow afternoon, 25 Marcb, to discuss the I1ldia-Pakistan question has been post'poned toMonday afternoon, 29 March. The discussion of the Palestine question will beresumed Tuesday afternoon, 30 March. TWOHUNDRED AND SEVENTY·FlF1'H MEETING Held at Lake Success, New York, on Tuesday, 30 MaTCh. 1948, at 2.30p.m. President:Mr. T. F. TSIANG-(China). Present :'·The, representatives' of the following .countries: Argentina, Belgium" Canada, ' Chinà, Colombia,France, Syria, Ukrainian SovietSoçial- ist Republic, Union of Soviet Socialist,Republics, United Kingdo)lJ.,. United States of America~. 38. Provisionalagenda' (~oêultlentS/Agenda 275) 1. Adoption of the agenda. 2. The Palestine question: , (a)FÏI'sf monfh1y ljrogress, rêporlf6 the , Security Canncilof the United Nations 'PaléstineCommission (docliIilent S/663). (h)' First special report to the Security Conn- cil: the prob1e~ of securityin Palestine; ,-. 39.,'Adoption of the agenda I:he agenfla was adopted. , '40. Continuation of tJte discussion onth,e ,Palestineqnestiob, ,At the invitption orthe President, Mr., Lisicky, Chairmim of the United Nations PQlestine Com- mission; Mahmoud Fawzi Bey,the representàtive of Egypt,' and Rabbi A.bba Billel Silver, therepre.. sentative of the JewishAgency for Palestine, took their places at theSecurity Council table. " Mr. AUSTIN (United States of America) : The time appears suitable to offer to the Security Council maft resolutions to carry out part II of Jhe papèr representing the views of four of the permanent members presented, as follows, at ~70th meeting: 1. As a result of the consultations of the' per- JIl!Ulent members regarding the situation with respect 'to Palestine, they find and report that a continuation 'of the infiltration into Palestine, by l~nd and by sea, of groups and persons with the purpose 'of taking part in violence, would 'aggravate still ~rther the' situation, and recom- mend:' ' , , ' : " . - , , " •• (a) ,That theSecurity' Council should make it clear to the parties aiId Governments conceined that the Security Council is determined not to permit the existence ,of a' threat to international peace in Palestine; and .. (b) That the Security Council should take ~ther action by 'aU means available to it 10' bring about the immediate cessation of violence and the restoration of peacé and order in Palestine." , , The' statement made by the President of the United States,on 25 .March indicat~s the urgent necessity of exerting every effort in the Security ,Council to arrange a truce between the Jews and Arabs of Palestine. Such a truce should be based on two funda- mental conside,ations. First, it is absolutelyessential that violence and bloodshed in Palestine cease. This is detnanded by humanitarian considerations. We must prevent anarchy. This is required to keep intemational peace. Cessation of hostiüties is imperative. Secondly, both the JeVls and Arabs of Palestine must be prepared to. accept truce arrangements ,which wouid not prejudice the c1aims of either group. The truce should include suspension of political as weU as military activity. Ta provide for the immediate cessation of hostiHties aad the basis for a truce, 1 have submitted fnr the consideration of the .Security Council the following draft resolution, which May he found in document S/704, dated 30 March 1948 : .. The Security Council, Il In the exercise of its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, ..'Notes with grave concern the increasing vio- lence and disorder in Palestine and believes that it is of the utmost urgency that an immediate truce be effected in Palestine; .. Calis upon the Jewish Agency for Palestine and the Arab Higber Committe to make available representatives to meet at once with the Security Council for the purpose of arranging a truce between the Arab and Jewish communities of Palestine; and emphasizes the heavy responsibility which would faU upon any party failïng to observé a truC6; .. CaUs upon Arab and Jewish armed groups in Palestine to cease acts of violence immedia- tely." It is the view of my Government that the immediate cessation of hostilities and the estab- lishment of a truce in Palestine' are the .Most urgent objectives. We believe that the Security CouDcil should also proceed as pl'omptly as possible to the cQnsideration of the additional conclusions and recommendations concerning Palestine. 1 alluded to these in my statement to the Security COUDci! at its 271st meeting. In bis connexion, we feel that the first step wbich should be taken by the Security Counci! is to request the Secretary-General to convoke a special session of the General Assembly. Accord- ingly, 1 havebeen requested by my Government to submit for the consideration of the Security .Counci! the following draft resolutinn, which will he found in document 8/705 of 30 March 1948 : Il The Security Council : Il Having received, on 9 December 1947, the resolution of the General Assembly .concerning Palestine dated November 29, 1947; Il Having taken note of the United Nations Palestine Commisison's fust and second monthly progress reports and first special report on the problem of security; .. Having called on 5 March 1948 on the per- manent members of the Counci! to consult; CI Having taken note'of the reports made concerning those consultations; . Il R~quests the Secretary-General, in accor- dance' :wifb Mîcle. 20. of the United Nations es~ablish erder, without'whicha peaceful splution of this problem·caimot . be foWid ot put into effeèt. . .', The exigencies of the. time limits confronting the Security Co~cilrequire prompt decision and issuance of the caU for a special session. This shouid not be delàyedby debate over; details of the .temporàrY trusteeshïp.· The UIlited States Îs ready,. dllrÏi1g· the required :period .of.notification, to offer and considerwith other members of the Sec~ty Council proposals.l'~garding such' ~etails. .MIo.' GROM~io . (Union of Soviet Soci~iSt Repu:b~cs) (translated trom Russitin) : The, Secl1'· rityCouncil has beendiscussing the PâIestine qûestion since 24 Febtua1'y. However,it has made no progress whatever in fulfiWngits task- thatofrendering assistancetothe United N"~tions :Palestine.Comnijssion-.which has beengiven the re~orisibilityforimplementing the decision of the Gener~ Assembly on the .partition of Pal~stine into two States. ' . Morçover we aretUI;aware thatthe Security Counell nptonlybas firllêd.to."make any progress ID thismatter, bqthas b.egunto move backWards. Not only does it not rendèrany'assistance to the PalestineCommission.inthe fulfilment of the task assignèd ,to it, nor .giveit appropriate instruetiOIlStO this. end; on the COIlttary, it e0nfuséS andcompUcates The whole .Palestitie question ··and jeopardizes thê iJ11plementa- tions of a decisioll aIreadyadopted bythe United Nations. Itisobvious"that the· greatestcomplica- tions' have arisen from the submission of the new United Statt:;.J proposais .. ellvisaging the ab~don­ men~ of the aIready adopted plan 'of partition and its·..·teplacement by the establishmeIlt· ofa.United Nations' trusteeship~ver Palestine: Given the'situation which bas now arisen in th~SecurityC<luntU'in the course oHts ~scussio~ of the P~lêstinequestion, a.nd,. Ît\ particular,'.the s~bpiission of the newUnitedStates proposaIs, 1 consider it neèessary tostate, the position of the USSR both on these new prop'os~s ~s weIl as on thegeneral· situation created in the' Security Côtinêil duting the' discussion of this problem. The GoveflUl1ent of the USSR considers, as it has 'aIt along, that the deciSion adopted· by the Oener~ Assembly onth~ partitiOll ot Pa1es~e mtotwoindependentJeWlSh and Arab States 18 _..;8 jUstane. It·iS'jùst, first 'of all,because it cor- As we know, thiswas not arrived at by the United Nations on the spur of the moment. It was the result of long and thororigh consideration, fust by the special session of the General Assem- bly, thenin the Committee specially set up by this special session, and finally at the second session of the General Assembly which adopted the partition plan in resolution 181 (II). As a result of such exhaustive consideration of the question of the future of Palestine, it was recog- nized that partition presented advantages over any other possible solution. It will b~ recalled tliat, at the beginning of the discussion of. the Palestine question, particularly at the special .session of .the Gen~ral Assembly, several possible altemative solutions were men- tioned, including tliat of the establishment of a single Jewish-Arab State with equal rights for Jews and~ Arabs. During the study of this ques- :Q.on, however, it became clear that neither the proposal toestablish a single. Jewish-Arab State, nor the other proposals,could constitutea basis for settlingthe telations between Jews .and Arabs 1I10r, consequently, a basis for a: proper solution .of the question of the future of Palestine. On the contrary, it was clear that the .partition of Pales- tine inio two independent·States would establish a solid foundation for the settlement of the relations betWeen these peoples, bôth in thefr own interest.and inthe4tterests of internationalpeace. -une .la Precisely because of the fact that a partition . of Palestine into two States has an advantage over any other solution of the Palestine problem, the overwhelming majority of States at the General Assembly accepted the partition plan and voted for its approval. The United States aIso voted in favour of this plan: not only did it vote for it- it was an active defender of such a. dtcision. At the General Assembly the United Sta..es delega- tion championed the proposaI· on the partition of Palestine and stroye .to have if adopted by the required majority of States. The United States representatives used all their influence··in order toachieye the adoption of' fuis plan. It is clear that, in so doing, the United States Govemment took upon itself a great responsibility fof the decision adopte.d by the General Assembly on·the partition of Palestine. .But. what is the situation today? We ar? witnessing a very strange phenomenon. The United State.s has changed its attitUde towatds a decision already adopted, and adopted with its active participation. Not onlyhas it refused to supportthis decision, but it has .raised the ques- tion of its revocation and introduced entirely new propusaIs to that effect. Needle~s ta say, such conduct on the part of the United States mmed at blocking the decision ,The United States repre~entativein the~curity Councilasserts that the, decision to partitiOIl Palestine cannot be implemented by peaceful means.He tries te prove 10 ,us, withcut bringing to bear anyfactsor argum,entsworthy of atten- tion~ ,th~t peaceful ,measures alone are not sufficient fQr carrying put the decision on parti- tion. In this,way he tries to convince us that the pin'tition of Palestine into two 'States is in practice ~ealizable~ and that the United, Nations must seek another solution. Now it has ~come apparent that' all these arguments were aimed at preparing the ground to bury the partition plan and, to justify the new United Statespr0Posal on Palestine. We can now see'cIearly what could only have been conjectured two or, three weeks ago, especiaIly when the representatives of the permanent members of the Security Council held their consultations 'at the i'equest of theSecurity COlmcil, which had asked them .10 carry out such consultations for the purpose of preparing ,future 'Seèurity Council recommendations that'wo'u1d ensure the fulfilment af the Ge~eraI Asse~bly decisian. .; AlI the arguments of the United States repre- .selitativewcre intended to substantiate and justify the ,move of', the United States 'Government directed- at .blocking 'the dccision on partition and at replacing it by the establishment of a,trustee- ship over Palestine. It must l1e said, however, that these argum~nts' are quite ·unconvincing and cannot bear sciutiny. It is impossible to' agree with an assertion'that the decision on partition cannot be carried out by pea.ceful means. No one 'bas ever proved this. The Security, Council has haxd.ly discussed this question, nor have the .per- manent 'membersof,the' ,Security Counci1 discussed' it in the course of thèirconsultations. only ·the representatives6f the United States and China. have madedefinite statements in this cOQlle,Xion, statemerits the meaning of which it wasnot difficultto understand evenbefore the ,subttlis~ion of the United States proposal on tlUSteeship. ' , But it would not change matters, if the pointaf view of the United States 'representative werc shared not onlyby the representative of China but ,aISe) by, the representatives 'of some other, States. Il wouldnot change matters, because such a point 'ofview' Is 'not supported .by tacts. The, assertion to the effectthat the decision on the partition of Palestine cannot be implemented by peaceful means is unfounded for the very reasonthat the Security Council not onlyhas failed, to makeuse of all possiblepeaceful means, but generally has ,not, adopted a' s~g1e ,dec.ision aimed al' ensuring the partition 'of-Palestiite. ,.' departage~Quelles inetteiltd'affirtiler réa1is~par'dêsmoyens pOut représentant qu'égarer de entraîner, sacr.ifices d'uneadmi:ùistration tutelle pour fondement$? d'une existe tions Etats-Unis ell~même. populationqu rapide résolution certains facteur régime Sacrifices can be reduced only through' the prompt and effective creation, as planned by the GeneraI ~Assembly, of two Statés ID PaIestiiJ.e. Jf the United States and some other States block the implementation of partition and· regard Pàlestine as an element in their economic and military-stra-' .tegic eàlculations, then any decision on the future of Pàlestine, including the establishment of a trusteesbip, will mean, the -qansformation" of Palestine into a field, of sirifé' and. dissension between the Arabs and the Jews. 'J;'his will only JDcrease thé number ,of vîctiIns., Nat!lràlly this would harm, first aJl, the peoples of Palestine- ~e Arabs and the Jews-whose legitimate rights W.tve àlready been violated enough in the past, particularly during the period of the administra- tion of Pàlestine under the Mandate.. AlI tbis gives us grounds for the conclusion that full responsibility for blocking the decision on the partition of Palestine falls on the United States, which, according to generàl opinion~ is concemed not with the just settlement of'the question of the future of Pàlestine ,and the rela- tions between Arabs and Jews, but with its own oil interests and military-suategicpositions in the Near East. AlI of the members of the Council are aware that tbis is precisely what underlies the new politicàl course of the United States on the Palestine issue, a course directed towards sacn:· ficing the decision aIready adopted by the United Nations to the economic. andmilitary-strategic interests of one Power-:interests which, as 1 bave aIready pointed out; have' nothing in common witb theinterests of the United Nations as a whole. ' ,partage repose . .There' ean be no doubt that'the blocking of the decision on the·partition' of Palestine would -he a serious blow to the United Nations,and that -tne responsibility for suèb a·blow rests fiilly with the United States.' . . ",:' l'application cesser tant génétale dememe Royaume-Uni cOrrespondent à It follows, therefore, that the Security' Council wouldbe .acting incorrectly were. it to accept the proposaT' that' the Palestine Commission should be given instructionsto suspend its' work aimed at the implementation of the decisionon partition. The Commission cannot stop its wor~. since it bas no right to do so as long as the decision adopted .<by the General Assembly rémàiD.S in force~ Finally, it should be noted that reports have b13~n appearing more and more frequently in the Press. la~ely to theeffect that the stat~ments of United Kingdom representativès on the wîth,.. drawal of British troops in Palestine, pursuant to the termination of the Mandate.on 15 May 1948, may remain unfulfilled. In that connexion hint.; are being dropped that the United Kingdom may change its decision .and leave its troops in Pales- tine either'at the request of the United States, or perhapsat the request of someone else, in. order to ensure the realization of the United States plan for the' establishment' of a 'lrusteeship over Palestine, and to .startthe execution of thisplan witli the hel)) of, the same British bayonets whjch the population ·of Palestine aIready knows so weIl, or, of other foreign arms. l do not Imowio what 'extentthese report~ correspond to reality, but the public opinion of the 'United. Nations .lIas· .the .. right to ,be .on .th~ aIen i,n .connexion.witIi' the ....appearanceof such reports~As,regaidsthe,reversalQf the llnite4 States .position: on. the Palestine question, pU'blic opinionreaijzes tb.at.reliance cannotalways 'b~ p~aced upon, stat~Illents,made . by the. ofli~ial representativesof .those countries for which Pales., tine i~. but.ane ofth~ pawnsin .their political gante. .. . :ThePREsIJ:)~NT:As thère are no represénfai tives who wish tospeakat thistime, 1 propose tl1at the meeting beadjourned. .... ". .• .[have.'ConsultedWith .the representative. whô Willbe thePresideritof thé Securi~.CoUIicit for the.month of April" and it.is proposed .that .the next. meeting'on the p'alestine. qtiestîonbe .held on 1April 1948, at2.3(lp.m. .' ",", T~ meeting, r()se at 4.20 p.rn.