U.N.O. APPROVES PARTITION

Chronicle (Levin), 1 December 1947, Page 5

U.N.O. APPROVES PARTITION

neceivea bunaay, 7.3U p.m. NEW YORK, Nov. 29. The General Assembly today approved the partition of Palestine by 33 to 13 votes with teri nations abstaining. The vote easily provided the two-thirds majority required for the Assembly to act. The final vote came after a last-minute ' Arab offer of a Federal Govern-j ment in Palestine and two State I Governments for the Arab andl Jewish areas which would be sub- ! ordinate to the Federal Govern-I ment. Senor Oswaldo Aranha, President of ihe Assembly, ruled that a vote! on the partition plan drawn up by Russia and the United States mustcome first. j When the vote was taken many Jews in the public galleries weptl unashamedly or clasped hands in i silent exultation. Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Pakis-i tan and Yemen declared they could not feel themselves bound by the: partition decision and reserved the right to take whatever action they deemed fit. One by one the Arab delegates, wearing ceremonial swords, strode to Ihe rostrum to brand the Assembly's verdict a violation of the United Nations Charter. Faris el Khoury ( Syria j said all the Arabs in the Moslem world would obstruct the cairving out of! the partition. j

Emir Abdel Arslan (Syria) said: "It has always been a custom to allow a man to speak freely to his hangman. I say, therefore, the charter is dead. It was murdered, and you will al know who are the culprits. The responsibility for the consequences will fall on your heads." The Arab delegates thereupon walked out in a body. Tlie Assembly nppointed Bolivia, ('zechoslovakia, Denmark, Panaina and the Philippines as members of the Palestine Conimission to admiriister Palestine between the tinie Britain withdraws and the date of -independence. The plan calls for Britain to withdraw her oceupation troops by Jnne 1, 1D4S. By August 1, 1948, three new political cntities are due to come into existettce: Firstly, the Arab State with an area of 4:1(10 square miles and a population of 004 ,000 Arabs and 10,000 •Tew-s; secondly, the Jewish State with an area of 5.100 square miles and a population of .">07,000 Arabs and 538,000 .Jews; thirdly, an enclave of the Jerusalem area of 298 square miles with a population of 10,1, 000r Arabs and 100,000 ,Jews. The enclave will be a Pnited Nations t rusteeship. The plan does not provide for troops to enforce partition. Reuter's correspondent says the next inove arising from today 's historymaking decision by the Pnited Nations Assembly is the appointment of representatives wlio will compose a tivenation commission* charged with the task of directing the partition of Palestine. The commission, according to inI'ormed sources, will make its headquarters at Tel Aviv where it is expected to contact the Jewish defenee forces, mainly the llaganah, in order to prepare for the actual transl'er of p»vver when the British forces leave. One of the commission 's main tasks will be to contact Jewish organisations such as Ilisadruth, the principal Jewish trade organisation, ihe Jewish Agencv and the Jewish Nntional Fund to lay ! the foundat iojis for ihe creation of the provisional go\ernnient rouncil which is envisaged in the Pnited Nations' plan. The greatest problenu facing the Pnited Nations is how to enforce the partition plan in the Arab part oi' Palestine. Pompetent authorities believe the Arabs will set up their own provisional government with headquarters probablv in Nablus and will attempt to hold as mucli Palestine territory as they are able. While Jewish control of the coastal plain is regarded as certain experts i'ear a conhict in sucli regions as Safad and Beersheba where the Arabs are in the majority. The fate of the Jews in Iraq and Kgypt also remains a disturbing problem. Alr. Gromyko (Russia) coinmented: " 1 think the decision is a just one. It is the best of all possible decisions un der the circumstanees. "