WASHINGTON, May 14, 1948 (UP) -- President Truman is considering a proposal to lift the embargo on shipment of arms to Palestine, an informed White House source said today.
Such action would follow this government's recognition of the new Jewish state of Israel in Palestine.
The embargo on arms shipments to the Middle East has been in effect for five months.
The White House, meanwhile, let it be known that Truman is considering the establishment of diplomatic negotiations with the provisional government of Israel.
White House Press Secretary Charles G. Ross told a news conference that reaction this far to the Administration's recognition of Israel has been overwhelmingly favorable.
He said the recognition of Israel had been discussed with Secretary of State George C. Marshall and Undersecretary Robert Lovett before the action was taken and had their complete support.
Ross also told reporters that Truman had been considering the action for several days before he made the surprise move last night.
Marshall himself, who a few weeks ago said that as long as he was secretary Palestine and domestic politics would never be mixed, remained silent. Truman's statement was confined to the barest essentials.
The official silence increased fairly well-founded suspicion that the U.S. speedy recognition of Israel was prompted primarily by fears that the Soviet Union might do it first.
The President got the most important and most favorable reaction from his good Republican friend, Senate President Arthur H. Vandenberg, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who hailed the step as "positive action after many months of critical and unhappy indecision."
Congressman John M. Vorys (R., O.) a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said, he couldn't keep up with the President's moves on Palestine. "He zigzags too fast for me," Vorys said.
In Lake Success, N.Y., today United Nations circles heard talk that Warren R. Austin would resign as chief U.S. delegate because of White House juggling of the Palestine problem.
A spokesman for the American delegation, however, issued a statement saying that "Senator Austin is not resigning."
The lack of liaison came to a head last night, when the UN General Assembly lurched to the close of its emergency meeting on Palestine in the wake of the unexpected White House decision, which surprised Austin and his delegation.
Diplomats representing nations normally close to the U.S. in the UN joined with delegates of the Soviet bloc and the Arab states in ridiculing and attacking the gyrations of the American delegation.
The final Assembly action on Palestine provided only for appointment of a UN mediator by the Big Five powers to go to the Holy Land and attempt to prevent or minimize the Arab-Jewish warfare.
Meanwhile, sources close to the British Foreign Office in London said today that Britain has no immediate intention of following the U.S. in recognizing Israel.
These sources expressed surprise at Truman's action.
"It is a rare thing to recognize a government which has no defined frontiers," a well-informed source said. "The new state of Israel certainly has no defined frontiers at the present time."
A Foreign Office spokesman said termination of the mandate did not in itself affect the Anglo-Trans-Jordan for military purposes and has loaned British officers to head King Abdullah's Arab Legion.
First reaction in other western European capitals was one of surprise, coupled in some cases with a feeling that U.S. recognition had been prompted by a desire to "get in ahead of Russia."
