Plans for Palestine The fact that 25 members of the
Palestine Committee of the General Assembly of the United Nations have voted for a partition, with 13 against and 19 abstentions makes little difference to the prac- tical problem of running the country, even if the Assembly concurs.
"Even in a stable political situation confusion of authority is dangerous," Sir Alexander Cadogan reminded the Palestine Com- mittee of the United Nations Assembly a week ago ; and the situation which, with a studied neglect for this truism, the various United Nations plans are designed to cater for is likely to be far from stable. Both the American and the Russian proposals for the transitional period envisage the use of British forces—to say nothing of British prestige and goodwill—as the agents of a policy for which Britain is not responsible and which she has repeatedly said that she will in no circumstances enforce. To a Russian delegate the British attitude (which the Government deserve credit for making absolutely clear) appeared " peculiar, to put it mildly " ; and Mr. Herschel Johnson has been accusing us of being unto-operative. What it boils down to is that the collective acumen of the United Nations is, not un- naturally, stronger than their collective sense of responsibility ; everyone can see that there will probably be dirty work to do, but nobody is prepared to go and help do it. So the men on the spot— the tired and disillusioned British soldiers and administrators—would be on the spot in more senses than one if the Government did not stick firmly to its sound and constitutional approach to the problem of relinquishing the mandate and evacuating the country.
