UNITED NATIONS: Exodus

Arthur Creech-Jones is a quiet little man, but what he had to say electrified the U.N. After 25 years in Palestine, the British were ready to pull out.

U.N. found itself staring at the newest problem in its lap: What now? Said Britain’s Colonial Secretary, who doubles as a delegate: “. . . The mandate should now be terminated. … I earnestly hope that the United Nations may have more success than the United Kingdom has had in persuading [Jews and Arabs] to cooperate. . . .” As he spoke, Jewish representatives and Arab committeemen sat with their backs to each other.

The British, Creech-Jones promised, would put their “experience” at the disposal of U.N. They would even stay on in Palestine for a brief transition period —provided U.N. could find a solution to which Jews and Arabs would peaceably agree. But, said the Colonial Secretary with deliberate emphasis: “His Majesty’s Government are not themselves prepared to undertake the task of imposing a policy in Palestine by force of arms. … In the absence of a settlement they must plan for an early withdrawal of British forces. . . .” If His Majesty’s Government had a preference for any particular solution in Palestine.* Creech-Jones kept it to himself.

Crackling events reminded U.N. what enforcing solutions might mean. In the Eastern Mediterranean, British destroyers intercepted another shipload of Jewish refugees; one Jew was shot to death and nine were wounded in a scuffle with the boarding party. In Palestine, Haganah stepped up recruiting. Five Zionist leaders, including Jewish Agency President David Ben-Gurion, received messages signed by “the commander in chief of fighting Arab youth for free Palestine.” The messages promised: “You will die as soon as possible. . . .”

From Jerusalem, the Arab Higher Committee invited the Arab and Islamic worlds to demonstrate Oct. 3 for an Arab Palestine. The Moslem League paper Dawn pleaded for a united Moslem front for 5,000 miles, from Morocco to the Punjab, called on Moslems to stand together “like bricks in a wall.”

At U.N., Palestine Arabs promised “defense of our beloved country with the last drop of our blood.”

British soldiers guarding road blocks in Palestine merely asked: “When do we go home?”

* Before a U.N. Assembly committee this week was the 165-page report of the U.N. Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) containing two diverging plans. UNSCOP’s majority favored partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab nations, with independence set for Sept. 1, 1949. The minority plan (advanced by India, Persia and Yugoslavia) proposed semi-autonomous Jewish and Arab states within a Palestine federation, in which, because of greater numbers, the Arabs would elect the chief executive. Zionists regarded the majority plan as better than nothing. Arabs denounced both plans, opposed a Jewish state of any kind in Palestine.