General Committee decides to begin work ASAP – UNCCP 56th meeting (Lausanne talks) – Summary record

UNITED NATIONS CONCILIATION COMMISSION FOR PALESTINE

SUMMARY RECORD OF THE FIFTY-SIXTH MEETING

held in Lausanne on Monday, 16, May 1949, at 10 a.m.

The CHAIRMAN was of the opinion that the General Committee should begin work as soon as possible; it might meet that afternoon for purposes of organisation and commence conversations with the delegations the following day. He also suggested that since the Committee would be closely linked with and dependent upon the Commission, its chairmanship should rotate in a manner parallel with that of the Commission; the Chairman of the Committee and the Chairman of the Commission would thus always be of the same delegation. It would be the Committee’s function to encourage the delegations to speak freely; the delegations should be informed that anything they wished to say which was of a confidential nature would be omitted from the records of meetings.

The Commission approved the Chairman’s suggestions, as well as a suggestion by Mr. Yalcin that although the Committee should reserve its right to invite the Arab delegations separately, those delegations should be received together at the first formal meeting with the Committee,