PARIS: The United Nations Political Committee tonight [Dec 3] threw the responsibility for Palestine’s future on a three-man Conciliation Commission and rejected the last of Count Folke Bernadotte’s recommendations — his proposal to join the Arab parts of Palestine to Transjordan.

The Committee gave the new … Commission a vague mandate to persuade Jews and Arabs to agree on all the controversial issues that have torn the Holy Land apart. The Committee adopted the British proposal that the … Commission draw up detailed proposals for a permanent international regime for Jerusalem, that formal guarantees be given for protection of holy places throughout Palestine, and that free access to them be assured. Voting was 34 to five with 14 abstentions. — News agencies

[According to news agencies from Lon­d­­on,] Mr Harold Wilson, President of the Board of Trade, told Parliament today [Dec 2] he was trying to get the Governments of Pakistan and India to export further supplies of jute and jute goods to Britain. He had been questioned about rising unemployment in British industries using jute as a raw material.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2023