Second Monthly Progress Report of the United Nations Palestine Commission to the Security Council1
March 12, 1948
[Here follows an account of the preparatory work of the Commission, which contains the texts of questions put to the Mandatory Power and the latter’s replies; an analysis of the impossibility of implementing the provisions of the General Assembly’s partition resolution of November 29, 1947, concerning establishment of Provisional Councils of Government and concerning the formation of militias in Palestine; and a discussion of relevant economic and financial questions.]
H. Conclusion
- 1.
- Negotiations with the Mandatory Power and the Jewish Agency will be continued. In view of the policy of the Mandatory Power not to co-operate in the implementation of the Plan adopted by the General Assembly, a satisfactory coordination of the plans of the Commission with those of the Mandatory Power, in many vital aspects, is precluded. This, together with the steady deterioration of conditions in Palestine, leaves little hope for, the achievement of continuity in administrative services and for an orderly transfer of authority to the Commission upon the termination of the Mandate.
- 2.
- Information concerning present conditions in Palestine, received by the Commission from the Advance Party of the Secretariat in Jerusalem, fully confirms the conclusions set forth in the commission’s first special report on the problems of security, and further emphasizes that unless security is restored in Palestine, implementation of the resolution of the General Assembly will not be possible.
- 3.
- The Commission, therefore, has the duty to reiterate that present indications point to the inescapable conclusion that when the Mandate is terminated Palestine is likely to suffer severely from administrative chaos and widespread strife and bloodshed.
- Reprinted from SC, 3rd yr., Special Suppl. No. 2, pp. 20, 27. The report, dated March 12, 1948, was transmitted by Chairman Lisicky to the President of the Security Council on March 15.↩