Editorial Note
A review of the summary records of the meetings of Subcommittee 9, which were held in private, indicates that the United States advocacy of trusteeship for Palestine was discussed only briefly. Finally, on May 13, Mr. Jessup introduced the United States draft resolution (General Assembly document A/C.1/SC.9/1) and “explained that it had been submitted in an attempt to ascertain the area of agreement that had been reached in the discussion. The United States had not abandoned its view that a temporary trusteeship would have afforded the most satisfactory solution, but it was clear that that had been dependent upon the negotiations [sic] of a truce before 15 May. The draft resolution … was based upon the two points upon which general agreement appeared to have been reached at the previous meeting, namely, support for the action of the Security Council in its efforts to negotiate a truce and the idea of good offices and mediation.” (Summary Record of the Tenth Meeting of Subcommittee 9, A/C.1/SC.9/SR/10 corr. 1, pages 1, 2, IO files) One section of the United States draft provided for the discharge of the Palestine Commission [Page 987] from further responsibilities under the resolution of November 29, 1947.
Subcommittee 9 submitted its report to the First Committee on May 13. The report included a proposed resolution based on the United States draft, with modifications; for text, see GA (II/SS), Annex, page 42. The First Committee began immediate consideration of the report, Mr. Jessup addressing the Committee in support of the document. He noted that “neither Jews nor Arabs were willing to sacrifice their interests to enable a temporary trusteeship to operate effectively. It was clear that in the absence of agreement between the parties, armed forces would be essential to any trusteeship plan. The United States had offered to contribute a share of the required forces and had approached certain other Governments which it felt might have a similar interest … but these Governments were not in a position to participate.” (GA (II/SS), Main Committees, page 242) Later in the same address, he stated that “The United States proposal was based on the need to satisfy two conditions: first, that any proposal should be based on the authority of the Charter, and secondly, that it should be practical and take into account the existing situation and the importance of bringing an end to the conflict. The proposals sought to add the authority of the Assembly to the truce endeavors of the Security Council. The second part of the proposal rested on mediation. Since the use of force to impose a solution was impossible, they had been driven to choose mediation as the central theme of Assembly action.” (Ibid., page 246) The First Committee, on May 14, adopted the United States draft resolution, as amended, by 35 votes to 6, with 10 abstentions (ibid., page 262).