867N.01/12–1944: Airgram
The Minister in Iraq (Henderson) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 3, 1945—3 p.m.]
A–75. 1. Several weeks ago the Foreign Office asked me informally if I possessed any details regarding the resolutions relating to Palestine which had been presented to the appropriate committees in Congress. I replied in the negative and was informed that the Iraqi Legation in Washington had reported that the House Committee had already approved the resolution which had been placed before it. The Foreign Minister informed me several days later that the resolutions had been discussed at a Cabinet meeting; that the Government was extremely disturbed at what the effect in Iraq would be if the resolutions would be passed; and that it had decided to send a friendly note on the subject to the American Government. Judge Lloyd,76 who still acts occasionally in a drafting capacity for the Prime Minister, and Jamali, the Director General of the Foreign Office, told me subsequently [Page 650] that they were working on the draft of such a note. At various times members of the Government and other prominent Iraqis mentioned to me their concern lest these resolutions should be passed and their passage should become known to the Iraqi public. No mention of the resolutions, however, was permitted to appear in the Iraqi press.
2. On the morning of December 12 Jamali informed me by telephone that the Foreign Office had received a message from Washington to the effect that the Secretary of State had advised the Senate Committee that, in the opinion of the Department, it would be unwise at the present time for the resolutions to be passed, and asked me to let him know in case I should receive any confirmation of this report. Several hours later I was able to give to the Foreign Office the contents of the Department’s telegram No. 263 of December 11.77 On the evening of the same day the Minister of Foreign Affairs made a special point of telling me how deeply the Iraqi Government appreciated the action of the Secretary of State. He said his Government regarded this action as convincing evidence that the United States really had an interest in maintaining good relations with the Arab world.
3. Following a dinner given by the Prime Minister on December 14, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Finance Minister78 called me to one side in order again to express the appreciation of the Iraqi Government of the action of the Secretary of State. They said that they hoped that the statement of the Secretary would definitely put to an end attempts of the Zionists to achieve their ends by resorting to internal political pressure in the United States; that the American Government would be free in the future to consider the problem of Palestine purely upon its merits and would be able to apply to the solution of that problem the principles enunciated in the Atlantic Charter and in the Declaration of the United Nations. They said that it was extremely important to Iraq and to other Arab countries that future relations between the United States and the Arab World be close and friendly and that they were relieved that a threat to these relations had been removed, at least for the time being.
4. The Minister of Foreign Affairs informed me several days ago that the Cabinet had decided, despite the Secretary’s statement to the Senate Committee, to send a note to the American Government on the subject of the passage of resolutions in Congress relating to Zionism. He said that his Government felt that it was its duty to have a formal expression of its feelings on the subject on record in the [Page 651] Department of State. It is probable that such a note will be handed to me in a few days.
5. No mention other than that referred to in paragraph number 6 below has appeared in the Baghdad press of the Secretary’s statement to the Senate Committee and the fact that he has made such a statement is thus far known to relatively few people. The Foreign Minister informs me that since the Iraqi press was not permitted to publish announcements with regard to the resolutions, it considered it inadvisable to give to the press at present the contents of the Secretary’s statement on that subject.
6. The only reference to the resolutions which has appeared in the Iraqi press was a story published in As Sa’a, a conservative Shia newspaper, of December 13, and repeated with several variations in An-Nida of December 19. Both of these papers are in opposition to the present Government. This story pointed out that following a visit of the Secretary of State upon the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, it had been announced that the discussion of the resolution would be postponed to an indefinite date. The article added that it had been learned that the White House was opposed to the passage of the resolution just now and that the White House opposition arose from the possible effect of the passage upon “American-Saudi Arabian economic and political relations”. The Director General of the Foreign Office informs me that the Minister of Foreign Affairs has complained because the Iraqi censor permitted this article to be published. He says that it was apparently based on stories coming out of Egypt and that the reference to Saudi Arabia was included in it in order to make it appear that the present Iraqi Government had been inactive in the matter.