UN Palestine Commission – Palestine Museum in Jerusalem – Letter from United Kingdom


7 April 1948

UNITED NATIONS PALESTINE COMMISSION

Communication Received from the United Kingdom

Delegation Concerting the Palestine Museum

The following communication, regarding the future of the Palestine Museum, Jerusalem, has been received from Mr. Fletcher-Cooke of the United Kingdom delegation.


UNITED KINGDOM DELEGATION TO THE UNITED NATIONS

Empire State Building

New York 1, N.Y.

6th April, 1948

My dear Bunche,

May I refer to paragraph (a) of your letter, of the 5th March on the subject of the future of the Palestine Museum.

2. I have now received the following additional information from Jerusalem which may be of interest to the Commission:-

(1) A Bill has been drafted which will shortly be enacted providing for the establishment of a Museum Trust and also providing that the first Curator of the Museum should be the person acting as Keeper at the time of the commencement of the new Ordinance.

(2) Mr. L.H. Iliffe, the present Keeper of the Museum, will thus automatically became the first Curator.

(3) Subsequent appointments will be made by the Board of Trustees.

(4) The Director of Antiquities has asked the appropriate Institutions to nominate their representatives as Trustees.

(5) The Bill is so drafted as to permit the working of the Trust as soon as even one member of the Board is appointed and the Government of Palestine are confident that they can arrange this before the 15th May.

(6) The proposal for an interim Executive Committee will, therefore, be dropped.

(7) With effect from the coming into force of the new Ordinance, the income of the Museum Endowment Fund will cease to be payable to Government’s Account but during the short period which will elapse between the date of the coming into force of the Ordinance and the termination of the Mandate the Government will continue to finance the Museum and its staff out of General Revenue. This is a small measure of assistance to eke out the income from the Fund which is not in itself sufficient to maintain the full and proper functions of the Museum.

(8) With effect from the 15th May, the Museum’s sole source of income until and unless a successor authority makes available funds from the General Revenues of Palestine will be from the interest on the Endowment.

Yours sincerely,

(Signed)

(J. Fletcher-Cooke)

Dr. Ralph J. Bunche,

Principal Secretary to the United Nations

Palestine Commission,

United Nations,

Lake Success.


2019-03-12T20:06:27-04:00

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