Editorial Note
According to Dan Kurzman, Genesis 1948, page 99. President Truman telephoned to Secretary Marshall at San Francisco on March 20 and instructed him to issue a statement making it clear that trusteeship had not been proposed as a substitute for partition but had simply been suggested as a temporary measure to fill the political vacuum in Palestine until partition could be effected.
Secretary Marshall held a press conference at Los Angeles on March 20 at which he stated that “The course of action with respect to the Palestine question which was proposed on March 19 by Ambassador Austin appeared to me, after the most careful consideration, to be the wisest course to follow. I recommended it to the President, [Page 749] and he approved my recommendation.… The United States suggestion is that a temporary trusteeship should be established in order to maintain the peace and to open up the way to an agreed settlement. This trusteeship could be ended as soon as a peaceful solution can be found. The trusteeship itself would be established without prejudice in any way to the eventual political settlement which might be reached for Palestine.” The full text of the Secretary’s statement is printed in Department of State Bulletin, March 28, 1948, page 408.