Commission discusses draft of 4th Progress Report to the SecGen – UNCCP 103rd meeting (Lausanne) – Summary Record

UNITED NATIONS CONCILIATION COMMISSION FOR PALESTINE

SUMMARY RECORD OF THE ONE HUNDRED AND THIRD MEETING

held in Lausanne, on Friday,
 9 September 1949, at.4 p.m.

*Alternate

Consideration of draft of the Fourth Progress Report to the Secretary-General

The CHAIRMAN thought it advisable to discuss the draft first from the point of view of general presentation, before proceeding to points of style.

He himself felt that considerable condensation would be desirable, particularly in the section “General Survey” in the chapter on “Conciliation”. He proposed that the “Introduction” should be deleted and replaced by a simple statement that upon resumption of the Commission’s meetings Mr. Ethridge had been replaced by Mr. Paul Porter. Further, he suggested the deletion of the section “Subsidiary Bodies”, and the addition of a special chapter after the chapter on refugees, to be devoted to the establishment of the Economic Survey Mission.

Mr. ROCKWELL suggested that the chapter on “Territorial Questions” should include statements both of the positions taken by the parties and of the action taken by the Commission in order to give a clear and true picture of the situation.

The CHAIRMAN disagreed with Mr. Rockwell, maintaining that the Commission’s action should be mentioned, but that a statement of the positions of the parties would be harmful to the negotiations, in that it would give too much publicity to the early proposals and render it difficult for the parties to revise their position as the Commission had requested. The Commission should simply state with emphasis that it had found the proposals unacceptable and not of a nature to permit the continuance of negotiations, He suggested that the language used in the notes to the Arab and Israeli delegations should be used as a model.

Mr. YALCIN supported the Chairman’s views.

Mr. ROCKWELL thought that mention should be made in the report of the Commission’s action with regard to promoting an arrangement for the benefit of Arabs whose lands were cut by the Armistice demarcation lines.

The CHAIRMAN suggested that in connection with the section on the Jerusalem question, the terms of reference drawn up for the representative in Jerusalem should be annexed to the report. The chapter on “Refugees” needed some condensation, as also did the section on “Preliminary Measures”.

He felt, moreover, that the report should include a statement to the effect that while the Commission for the time being would limit itself to its function of conciliation, it nevertheless envisaged eventually taking upon itself the role contemplated in paragraph 2 (a) of the resolution of 11 December 1948, namely, “to assume, insofar as it considers necessary in existing circumstances, the functions given to the United Nations Mediator…” He did not contemplate the submission of proposals by the Commission to the General Assembly, but rather the presentation of proposals by the Commission to the parties, within the framework of the negotiations, after all possibility of conciliation should have been deemed to be exhausted. If the Commission should be led by the progress of the negotiations, to make such proposals, and if they should be rejected by the parties, then the Commission would report to the General Assembly that it had submitted proposals and failed to achieve their acceptance.

Arrangements of the United Nations Representative in Jerusalem

The Commission agreed to request the Principal Secretary to inform the Secretary-General that the Commission considered that all material means to ensure the prestige and authority of the United Nations Representative in Jerusalem should be placed at his disposal on arrival. Since it had always been assumed that the United Nations Commissioner, when appointed, would live in Government House, the Commission thought it appropriate that Dr. Gonzalez Fernandez should also take up residence there.

Consideration of the press communique concerning the recess

The Commission agreed to reconsider an amended version of the United States draft of the press communique announcing adjournment of the Commission’s work. It was decided that officially the Commission would adjourn on 16 September and resume in New York on 19 October.