Right Hon. L. S. ST. LAURENT (Secretary of State for External Affairs): Mr. Speaker,
I beg leave to table an official communication received from the Secretary-General of the United Nations Organization, Lake Success, by the Department of External Affairs on May 15. It is a resolution reading in part as follows:
Whereas the general assembly of the united nations has been called into special session for the purpose of constituting and instructing a special committee to prepare for the consideration at the next regular session of the assembly a report on the question of Palestine.
The general assembly resolves that:
1. A special committee be created for the above-mentioned purpose, consisting of the representatives of Australia, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Guatemala, India, Iran, Netherlands, Peru, Sweden, Uruguay, and Yugoslavia;
2. The special committee shall have the widest powers to ascertain and record facts, and to investigate all questions and issues relevant to the problem of Palestine;
3. The special committee shall determine its own procedure;
4. The special committee shall conduct investigations in Palestine and wherever it may deem useful, receive and examine written or oral testimony, whichever it may consider appropriate in each case, from the mandatory power, from representatives of the population of Palestine, from governments and from such organizations and individuals as it may deem necessary;
5. The special committee shall give the most careful consideration to the religious interests in Palestine of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity;
6. The special committee shall prepare a report to the general assembly and shall submit such proposals as it may consider appropriate for the solution of the problem of Palestine;
7. The special committee's report shall be communicated to the secretary-general not later than 1st September, 1947, in order that it may be circulated to the members of the united nations in time for consideration by the second regular session of the general assembly.
The communication contains this further paragraph:
Report of first committee as approved by general assembly contains paragraph relating to composition of special committee which reads as follows:
The committee associated itself with the views expressed by the representative of Venezuela that the states, members of the special committee, should appoint persons of high moral character and of recognized competence in international affairs, and that those appointed would act impartially and conscientiously, in accordance with the purposes and principles of the charter of the united nations.
I have pleasure in informing the house that Mr. Justice I. C. Rand, of the Supreme Court of Canada, has accepted the task of representing Canada on this committee. He will be accompanied by Mr. Leon Mayrand, of the Department of External Affairs.
