Editorial Note
Count Bernadotte, on June 7, sent a note to the Arab states and to the Provisional Government of Israel in which he gave formal notice that he had fixed June 11, 6 a. m., GMT, as the date and hour for the cessation of all acts of armed force in Palestine for a period of four weeks. He requested that notification of acceptance or rejection of his proposal to be in his hands not later than June 9, noon, GMT. Embodied in paragraph numbered 6 of the note were his nine interpretations of the Security Council resolution. The Second of these read as follows: “As regards men of military age, the Mediator shall exercise his discretion during the period of the truce in determining whether men of military age are represented among immigrants in such numbers as to give one side a military advantage if their entry is permitted, and in such event shall refuse them entry. Should men of military age be introduced in numbers necessarily limited by the application of the foregoing principle, they are to be kept in camps during the period of the truce under the surveillance of observers of the Mediator, and shall not be mobilized in the armed forces or given military or paramilitary training during such period.”
For the full text of Count Bernadotte’s note, see SC, 3rd yr., Supplement for June 1948, page 81.