Foreign Relations of the United States, 1947, The Near East and Africa, Volume V

867N.01/3–347: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the United States Representative at the United Nations (Austin)¹

secret
priority

Washington, March 6, 1947—6 p. m.

71. 1. Reurtel 192, March 3. We feel proposal regarding Palestine made by Lie is legally of doubtful validity and on the merits would not accomplish the purposes intended.

2. We find it difficult to reach any conclusion regarding procedure for dealing with the Palestine problem in UN in the absence of any formulation of the problem by the UK Government. We assume that after UK has formulated in principle if not in detail specific substantive proposals for submission to UN it will communicate its intentions to SYG.

3. After receiving such a communication SYG might find it appropriate to have an analysis of the Palestine problem prepared by his Secretariat staff for the use of the appropriate body of UN. Such a study would probably not have as its purpose the formulation of conclusions or recommendations but rather an impartial and objective analysis of the factors involved in the Palestine problem and of proposals which have been made from time to time with regard, for example, to immigration, partition, and the like.

4. To assist in making this study the SYG would presumably wish to avail himself of expert assistance which he is authorized to employ. He would probably also wish to consult with representatives in NY of various Member Governments and in this connection might even desire to establish an informal committee to advise him.

5. In your discretion you may wish to discuss this matter with Cadogan in sense of foregoing paragraphs. You will probably also wish to inform Lie of our tentative views regarding his proposal in the sense of paragraph 1 above, but you may feel that it would be desirable not to discuss the other suggestions with Lie until after you have discussed them with Cadogan.

Acheson

1. Telegram 71 to New York was drafted by the Deputy Director of the Office of Special Political Affairs (Ross). It was based on discussions with Mr. Acheson on March 6 and was approved in draft by Mr. Henderson and officers of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs. In a memorandum of March 7 to Mr. Ross, the Legal Adviser (Fahy) stated that the first paragraph of the telegram “cast legal doubt upon the proposal made by Lie. I have thought that the proposal was legally permissible, though it might be impracticable.” (867N.01/3–747)