Cablegram 590[1], CANBERRA, 24 November 1949, 5.30 p.m.
IMMEDIATE RESTRICTED
Many thanks for your personal message which I have read and studied. In a public statement I made yesterday, I emphasised that our resolution was not aimed against either party but was a deliberate attempt to work out a means of achieving peace and stability. It is not mere form which persuades us to keep to the previous resolution, but a conviction that the principle of an international regime should be observed to achieve the above objectives. How that principle is worked out in detail, and what administrative arrangements might be made, is a matter for discussion. You will note that part of our proposal is that an expanded Commission should consider this matter further. You will appreciate, too, that in almost every country of the world there is a keen interest in the whole question of Jerusalem, and I feel strongly that acceptance of the principle of an international regime will be greatly in the interests of the future development and prestige of the new State of Israel.
I am instructing the Delegation to keep in close touch with you, as we have always done, and I hope that we will be able to maintain our common approach to this problem, especially since our prime objectives have been virtually achieved and since, also, we, for our part, are approaching the particular problem Jerusalem on the same basis as that on which we worked together previously.
_[1] Conveyed through the office of the Australian Mission to the United Nations in New York.
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[AA : A1838, 851/12/8, I]