Office of the Historian

890D.00/920: Telegram

The Diplomatic Agent and Consul General at Beirut (Wadsworth) to the Secretary of State

Beirut, November 24, 1942—1 p.m.
[Received 6:58 p.m.]

480. Reference my 479, November 24, noon. There follows a résumé of balance of my conversation with Syrian Foreign Minister.

1.
He expressed particular satisfaction at my confirmation of his impression that the trend of public, as well as official, opinion in the United States includes so strong a repudiation of isolationism as to warrant his Government’s assuming that the American Government will in fact at the peace conference to follow the United Nations victory “use the full measure of our influence to support the attainment” of uncircumscribed independence by his country. He welcomed my comment that we believed Syria was “ready for it” and assured me there could be no question but that during the period of necessary waiting his people would “by their acts show themselves worthy of it” (note: quotes are from my remark to President of Lebanon).
2.
He recalled in this connection of his country that following the last war we did not act in accordance with the findings of the King–Crane Commission38 and the fact that to the question put to them by Mr. Willkie39 as to whether they would prefer the French or the British he and two of his Cabinet colleagues had replied “neither”.
3.
He was even more pleased when I told him briefly of our attitude towards what he termed French insistence on a special preeminent privileged position (see my 478, November 24, 11 a.m.) and he said that last year when he had accepted post of Foreign Minister, General Spears had assured him that British recognition of this French position was designed simply to keep things quiet until the end of the war when it was the British Government’s intention that Syria would require full independence.
4.
He recalled, however, that after the last war Britain had taken very much the same attitude toward the Amir Faisal then established [Page 672] in Damascus but had later yielded to French insistence even failing to intervene when General Gouraud invaded the country by force of arms. The result, he said, had been that Syrian leaders were long classified as pro-British or pro-French and the former had been consistently persecuted. Today unhappily the picture was very much the same. He had tried to steer a middle course. He wanted only for his country eventual post-war independence. I would understand, therefore, the great satisfaction he felt in having the assurances which I brought from my Government.
Wadsworth
  1. For correspondence on this subject, see Foreign Relations, 1919, The Paris Peace Conference, vol. xii, pp. 745 ff.↩
  2. Wendell Wilkie, Republican candidate for President in 1940, on a tour around the world.↩