Impotence in Palestine
The United Nations Commission on Palestine this week came to the inevitable conclusion that, since partition is not an "agreed solution," force will be necessary to carry it through. It has there-
fore appealed to the Security Council for an " adequate non- Palestinian force " to be provided, both to assist the law-abiding sections of the Arab and Jewish communities in preserving peace and to put into effect the resolution of the General Assembly. Isle more than three months remain until the termination of the mandate. and British troops are already thinning out. After May r5th they will be responsible for the protection only of their own rear-parties. Is there any serious possibility that within the next three months (an outside limit) the Security Council will be able to agree on the composition of an adequate international force, mobilise it, and despatch it to Palestine? And if it does not, what alternative to chaos is there other than to postpone the departure of British troops? But the British Government is unlikely to consider this alternative, since its only interest, once the decision to end the mandate was taken, has been to clear out of Palestine as quickly as possible. One slight constructive beginning might be made by hastening the plans, already agreed on at Lake Success, for international control in the Jerusalem enclave. This could be made a means for preserving at least a cadre of the existing police and administrative services intact, though it would be at best a small foundation on which to recreate order for the rest of Palestine. What cannot now be escaped is the recognition that if partition is to be persisted in as a policy for Palestine, the United Nations must use force. The unpleasant implications of this fact must, in particular, be faced by the United States, without whose sponsorship partition would not have been adopted by the Assembly. Mr. Marshall's recent remarks on Palestine have been reticent, but the Palestine Commission shows that the time for reticence is past. The question of an international force ought manifestly to have been faced long ago. The fact that it has not been leaves the situation in Palestine profoundly disturbing.
