Jews to Set Up Administration for Palestine, NY Herald Tribune, Apr. 11, 1948.

By Kenneth Bilby By Wireless to the Herald Tribune Copyright, 1948, New York Herald Tribune Inc.

TEL AVIV. April 10.- It was learned today. When the British mandate is surrendered May 15, the authority will be proclaimed as an interim government of a sovereign Jewish state in Palestine.

The administration will assume the major governmental functions previously the responsibility of the Jewish Agency for Palestine and of Vaad Leumi (the Jewish national council). David Ben-Gurion, chairman of the Agency, will in all probability head the new organization.

The authority will be solely responsible for mobilization of the projected Jewish state’s man power and economic resources for war against the Arab armies. It will be granted full power in all matters relating to security, defense, trade, industry, labor, health and education.

In the view of Jewish leaders, it will become a de facto government as soon as its headquarters begin to function-probably on Wednesday or Thursday. Many of its duties, such as the military draft, taxation, export-import controls and raw materials control, are already being handled by administrative boards operating within the purview of the Jewish Agency.

On Monday a food-control board, one of the most important agencies of the contemplated state, will begin operation, Working through municipal governments which will enforce its edibles, the board will control the price, distribution and production of any or all foodstuffs.

It will, for example, be empowered to ration those items in short supply! At present bread, eggs and meat are not being obtained in sufficient quantities and will probably be officially rationed within a month throughout the state. After May 15 the importation of foodstuffs, now a responsibility of the mandate government, will become a duty of the board.

Among the problems of the new administration will be the creation of a sub-authority to maintain Internal and external postal service and to re-establish communications. At present Jerusalem is virtually isolated from Tel Aviv and other important Jewish settlements in the Holy Land. A transportation board is now being established which will have supreme authority over both military and civil transport.

Haganah, the Jewish army, which is now controlled and financed by the Jewish Agency, will immediately become the defense arm of the metric administration. It is reported that renewed efforts are being made to merge or co-ordinate the activities of the Haganah and the militant underground organizations, Irgun Zvai Lcumi and the Stern Group.

Calls Authority Essential

Ellezer Kaplan, treasurer of the Jewish Agency, described the establishment of the central administration as essential to counteract the “growing disintegration in the mandate government.” He contended that the British administration had ceased to fulfill even elementary functions and that the Jews had no alternative but the creation of their own administrative organs.

It was emphasized by high Jewish officials that the carry establishment of the interim regime had no connection with the pending special session of the United Nations General Assembly and was in no sense an effort to influence its verdict on Palestine, Mr. Ben-Gurion described the authority as a logical preliminary before the proclamation of a Jewish state.

This latest Jewish decision, however, provided a clear indication that any U. N. decision favoring a trusteeship, as proposed by the United States, will be ignored here. The Jews remain potently determined to abide by the original U. N. decision on partition and to create their state on the lines it proposed.

The World Zionist Council, which is meeting here now, is expected to authorize and indorse the new administration and the subsequent Jewish state, Many of the details of transferring authority from the agency to the state are being worked out in council committee meetings today and will probably be announced after the plenary session tomorrow.

The Jewish Agency will continue to operate. Its primary function beginning this week however, will be to deal with problems affecting world Jewry rather than internal administration of the state. It will, for example, handle details of Jewish immigration to the Holy Land and it will act as a liaison agency between the World Zionist Movement and the proposed state.

Most of the administrative officials of the agency, including Mr. Ben-Gurion and Mr. Kaplan, are expected to transfer to the new administration. Their service from the Agency will be officially announced when the de facto state is proclaimed on May 16.

The central administration and a consultative assembly will contain representatives of all political factions among the Jews and will serve on an interim basis until war conditions permit a general election. Mr. Ben-Gurion is considered certain to be the choice for prime minister of the new state.