Palestine question – Military equipment returned to the United States – Press release

UNITED NATIONS

Department of Public Information

Press and Publications Bureau

Lake Success, New York

Press Release PAL/518

5 August 1949

MILITARY EQUIPMENT USED BY UN IN PALESTINE

RETURNED TO THE UNITED STATES

Another phase of the Palestine War came to a close on 31 July, when the U.S. Naval transport Marquette left the port of Haifa with 43 tons of military equipment which was loaned by the United States to the United Nations' Mediator when war engulfed the Holy Land.  The equipment is no longer needed since the signing of the armistice between Israel and her Arab neighbors.

A good deal of the equipment, which a few months ago served the U.N. observer corps–numbering at its peak some 500 American, Belgian and French officers, plus an equal number of enlisted men–to help supervise the truce and investigate incidents, has been idle since the armistice treaties were signed.

For several weeks this surplus equipment has been concentrated at Haifa, brought there from many parts of the Middle East, including Cairo, Aqaba, Beirut, Damascus, Amman and Baghdad.  The equipment which is now returning to the United States includes seven jeeps, eight radio jeeps, two radio trucks, four trucks, twelve radio stations and hundreds of sundry items.

United Nations radio stations which are now on their way back to the United States, sent out approximately 2 million words during the past 14 months, including the 3-word flash on the afternoon of 17 September–"Bernadotte assassinated Jerusalem."

The equipment aboard the Marquette comprises only that material which was loaned to the U.N. Mediator by the United States; additional material loaned by the United Kingdom will be returned later.

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