Editorial Note
The provisional agenda of the Second Session of the General Assembly, issued as GA doc. A/329 on July 18, contained forty-three items. Three of these dealt with Palestine: the “Question of Palestine (item submitted by the United Kingdom)”, the “Report of the Special Committee on Palestine” and the “Termination of the Mandate over Palestine and the recognition of its independence as one State (item submitted by Saudi Arabia and by Iraq)”. (United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, Second Session, General Committee, hereafter cited as GA (II), General Committee, pages 32–34.) The letters to the Secretary-General by the representatives of Saudi Arabia and Iraq have been released as General Assembly documents A/317, July 7, and A/328, July 14, respectively.
In connection with the organization of the Second Session, Secretary-General Lie circulated his memorandum of September 12, 1947, which suggested that the General Committee recommend to the plenary meeting “the establishment of an ad hoc political committee on which each Member of the General Assembly would have the right to be represented, and that this committee should consider any items on the agenda concerning Palestine.” (ibid., page 38)
On September 17, after the Syrian delegate opposed creation of an ad hoc committee and the British and American delegates favored creation of such a committee, the General Committee agreed to recommend to the General Assembly the creation of an “Ad Hoc committee on the Palestinian Question”, along the lines of the Secretary-General’s recommendations (ibid., pages 1, 2). The three items in the provisional agenda dealing with Palestine were among those approved by the General Committee the same day (ibid., page 5), and on September 23, the General Assembly voted to create the Committee (GA (II), Plenary, page 275).
The Ad Hoc Committee convened on September 25. On that day, Chairman Evatt requested the Secretary-General to invite the Arab Higher Committee and the Jewish Agency for Palestine to be present during the Committee’s deliberations (United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, Second Session, Ad Hoc Committee on the Palestinian Question, hereafter cited as GA (II), Ad Hoc Committee, pages 1, 2).