1. Our UNSCOP.9. Views in Committee have now finally emerged as
follows-for partition plus economic union seven, for federation
three (India, Iran, Yugoslavia), without commitment to either
proposal Australia. The Australian attitude was outlined as
follows-that in accordance with the terms of reference and with
undoubted intention of the special assembly the primary obligation
of the committee was that of a recording, reporting and fact-
finding body, that even had there been something like unanimity on
the particular solution the Assembly would have been entitled to
receive in the report a discussion of other possible solutions,
that in the present situation such considerations applied even
more strongly and that it was essential that the report should
present to the Assembly the whole range of arguments covered in
the committee's discussions in such form as to enable the Assembly
to review the question as a whole and to make its own
determination. We stated that in these circumstances we saw no
necessity to indicate now a preference for one proposed
arrangement over another; the final determination could only be in
the hands of the Assembly which alone was the competent body to
decide what was workable and what was not workable in the light of
all factors including political factors many of which were beyond
the committee's scope.

2. There was a strong move on the part of some members including
the chairman to let the matter go forward in the form of a
majority and [a] minority report but with the help of the
Netherlands and Czechoslovakia we succeeded in getting adopted the
view that the report would go forward as a whole with a full
discussion of the two main alternatives on which the delegates, if
they so desired, could record their preference in the body of the
report.

3. The report will also contain a chapter setting out certain
matters on which common ground agreement has been found in the
committee, for example, the termination of mandate and granting of
independence at the earliest practicable date, rejection of
extreme solutions, United Nations responsibility during a
transitional period, holy places and religious interests,
increased but controlled Jewish immigration in transitional
period, special action by the Assembly with regard to Jewish
displaced persons as a whole as a means of alleviating the
Palestine problem.

4. I recommend that we be enabled to sign the report in the above
form adding if necessary a statement reserving our position with
regard to the two main alternative proposals on the lines referred
to in paragraph two. The report will probably come up for
signature on 1st September so should be glad to receive any
comments immediately.