The Palestine issue was cited by President Truman as one of the major world problems in a report which he submitted to Congress today, prior to his departure for a trip to Florida and the Caribbean Sea.
The President emphasized that the United States delegation at the United Nations did not present the initial proposals for a solution of the Palestine problem, but took an active part in arriving at such recommendations.
“The main objective of the United States Government on the Palestine problem,” the President reported, “was to assure the fullest possible consideration by the General Assembly of all practicable alternative solutions and the reaching of a carefully reasoned decision expressing the best Judgment of the United Nations as a whole on the wisest disposition to be made of this small territory.”
In a letter which accompanied the report, Truman said that the United States will continue its policy of “carrying its full share of responsibility and leadership in the United Nations,” Presenting the Jewish and Arab arguments on Palestine, the President stated: “For the United States, as for other members of the United Nations, these rival plans–each based upon historical, political and legal arguments–have treated a dilemma of infinite complexity.”
The complete text of the General Assembly’s partition resolution, together with a map of the proposed Jewish and Arab states, is attached to the report. “Today the Holy Land tests the ability of the world community to make a peaceable disposition of this problem now marked by strife,” the President emphasized.
HEAD OF U.S. DELEGATION TO U.N. SEEKS INSTRUCTIONS ON PALESTINE
Senator Warren Austin, head of the U.S. delegation at the United Nations, will arrive here on Monday to discuss with State Department officials his position on Palestine at the Security Council, it was announced today by the State Department.
A spokesman for the Department declared that Sen. Austin has been in very close touch with Secretary of State George C. Marshall on the Palestine issue. The spokesman was unable to say whether Secretary Marshall had discussed the statement prepared for the Security Council with President Truman before the President left on his vacation.
In a memorandum to President Truman and Secretary of State Marshall, the Association of Parents of American Students in Palestine requested that students from the United States be given the “basic human right” to defend themselves when attacked without threat of penalization by the American Consulate in Jerusalem.
The Association, which represents “500 parents of students who are now in Palestine,” stated that while American students do not ask for any “extraordinary measures of protection” from the U.S. Government, “they trust that their Government will not withhold from them those services and amenities which citizens engaged in lawful pursuits in any foreign country have a right to expect.”
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