Editorial Note
The Trusteeship Council of the United Nations, at New York on January 30, began general discussion of the question of an international régime for the Jerusalem area and protection of the Holy Places. The members of the Council were Argentina, Australia, Belgium, China, the Dominican Republic, France, Iraq, New Zealand, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The focus of discussion was the resolution of December 9, 1949, which had provided for the placing of Jerusalem under a permanent international régime and had called on the Trusteeship Council to complete the preparation of the Statute of Jerusalem and proceed with its implementation. The Council, at its second special session on December 19, by eleven votes to none with one abstention, had adopted a Mexican draft resolution which entrusted to the President of the Council the task of preparing a working paper on the Statute. (United Nations, Official Records of the Trusteeship Council, Second Special Session, from the First Meeting (8 December 1949) to the Eighth Meeting (20 December 1949), page 69). The text of the Mexican draft resolution is printed ibid., page 68.
President Roger Garreau, the French Representative, presented a plan to the Trusteeship Council on January 30. The Plan provided for the Jerusalem area to be constituted as a corpus separatum. The area was to be divided into three parts, an Israeli zone under the authority and administration of Israel, a Jordanian zone under the authority and administration of Jordan, and the “International City” under the collective sovereignty of the United Nations and administered, under the supervision of the Trusteeship Council, by a governor [Page 711] of the Holy Places. Practically all the New City would remain under the sovereignty of Israel; the Arab quarters in the Old City and the connecting roads with Jericho, Nablus, and Hebron would come under Jordanian sovereignty (telegram 154, identified also as Tcdel 46, January 30, from Geneva, 350/1–3050). The text of the Garreau Plan is printed in United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifth Session, Supplement No. 9, page 3.
The Iraqi Representative gave his first impressions that the Garreau Plan far exceeded the resolution of December 9 and would likely transform the Trusteeship Council into another political committee with full scale discussion required. The Philippine Representative also deemed the plan “at variance if not in conflict with GA directive.” President Garreau denied that “his interpretation corpus separatum went beyond resolution, insisting TC given wide powers to interpret.” (Telegram 160, identified also as Tcdel 48, January 30, from Geneva, 350/1–3050.)
A summary of the Council’s discussions on January 30 is printed in United Nations, Official Records of the Trusteeship Council, Fourth Year, Sixth Session, 19 January–4 April 1950 (hereinafter cited as TC (VI)), pages 48 ff.