501.BB/5–1647
Memorandum by the Secretary of State to President Truman
Subject: Results of special session of United Nations General Assembly on Palestine1
The special session of the United Nations General Assembly adjourned on May 15 after adopting a resolution which establishes a Special Committee to study the Palestine problem and submit, by September 1, such proposals as it may consider appropriate for the solution of the problem. The report of the Special Committee2 will be considered at the second regular session of the Assembly, in September.
[Page 1086]The principal decisions reached at the special session were as follows:
1. Composition of Committee
The Special Committee consists of eleven relatively neutral states, not including the Great Powers or an Arab state. The members of the Committee are Australia, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Guatemala, India, Iran, the Netherlands, Peru, Sweden, Uruguay, and Yugoslavia.
2. Terms of Reference (See Enclosure 1)3
The Committee has broad and flexible powers to investigate all relevant issues, in Palestine and elsewhere, and to receive testimony from such sources as it deems necessary. Non-governmental organizations, particularly those which represent elements of the population of Palestine, will be heard by the Special Committee in its discretion.
3. Appeal to Avoid Prejudicial Action
At its final meeting the Assembly passed a resolution calling upon “all governments and peoples, and particularly upon the inhabitants of Palestine, to refrain, pending action by the General Assembly on the report of the special committee on Palestine, from the threat or use of force or any other action which might create an atmosphere prejudicial to an early settlement of the question of Palestine.”4
The results of the special session are very satisfactory to the United States and afford some ground for hope that a practicable solution may be presented to the General Assembly in September.
If this Government’s views should be requested by the Special Committee, the Department of State will wish to make recommendations to the President regarding the submission of such views. The Department of State will also wish to make recommendations regarding the position which the United States should take at the next session of the Assembly.
- The General Assembly discussed the report of the First Committee on May 14 and 15 (GA (S–I), Plenary, vol. i, pp. 122–177). On May 15, the Assembly adopted the report by a vote of 45 to 7. Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria; and Turkey were recorded in opposition; Siam abstained; and Haiti and the Philippines were absent (ibid., pp. 176, 177).↩
- The United Nations has published the report of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine as Supplement No. 11 to the Official Records of the Second Session of the General Assembly. The report is in five volumes: vol. i comprises the body of the report; vol. ii consists of annexes, appendix and maps; vols. iii and iv contain the oral evidence presented at public and private meetings, respectively; and vol. v is the index. When referred to hereafter, these volumes will be identified as UNSCOP , with appropriate volume number.↩
- The text of the General Assembly resolution, not printed.↩
- For the official text, see GA (S–I), Plenary, vol. i, pp. 173, 174.↩