Office of the Historian

501.BB/4–1747

Memorandum by the Secretary of State to President Truman 1

Washington, April 17, 1947.

The special session of the General Assembly to consider the Palestine question is expected to meet on April 28. The present plan is that this special session will limit its agenda2 to the appointment of a committee to report back to the regular session of the General Assembly in September. The question arises as to the composition of this committee.

[Page 1071]

The State Department considers that our first choice should be a small committee of comparatively disinterested states, excluding the Big Five and the Arab States, which would ascertain the facts, narrow the issues and offer alternative practicable solutions for the consideration of the General Assembly. Such a committee would have the advantage of providing a fresh approach and a consideration not unduly influenced by public positions already taken by the more interested governments. It has the disadvantage that it might be charged that the larger powers are shirking a responsibility which is in fact theirs. The members of such a committee might include:

  • Canada
  • New Zealand
  • Sweden
  • Belgium
  • Czechoslovakia
  • Brazil
  • Mexico
  • Colombia
  • Norway
  • Siam

The State Department considers that our second choice should be a small committee consisting of the Big Five and six of the smaller powers, again excluding the Arab States. Such a committee would have the advantage of placing responsibility directly upon the larger powers and also of obtaining the assistance and advice of comparatively neutral United Nations members. It would have the disadvantage of injecting into the consideration of the Palestine problem the more general problems of the world settlement and of subjecting this government to great domestic pressure between now and the September meeting of the General Assembly. There is some indication that the Arab States would strongly object to a committee containing this particular membership and without an Arab member. The membership of this second type committee might be as follows:

  • China
  • France
  • U.S.S.R.
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
  • Canada
  • Sweden
  • Czechoslovakia
  • Belgium
  • Mexico
  • Siam

Although the State Department does not suggest that we recommend it, the special session of the General Assembly may also have before it a proposal to name a larger committee consisting of those governments now members of the Security Council, the Economic and Social [Page 1072] Council and the Trusteeship Council. These would provide the following membership:

  • China
  • France
  • U.S.S.R.
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
  • Belgium
  • Colombia
  • Syria
  • Australia
  • Brazil
  • Poland
  • Byelorussian S.S.R.
  • Lebanon
  • New Zealand
  • Turkey
  • Venezuela
  • Canada
  • Chile
  • Netherlands
  • Peru
  • Cuba
  • Czechoslovakia
  • India
  • Norway
  • Iraq
  • Mexico

It will be noted that the above list contains three Arab States, to which the Jewish Agency can be expected to object strongly. If such a committee were constituted, it would undoubtedly be necessary for it to establish a subcommittee along the lines of one of the alternatives described above.

  1. Drafted by the Director of the Office of Special Political Affairs (Rusk).↩
  2. In telegram 130, April 7, 7 p. m., the Department notified the U.S. Delegation at the United Nations that “We are most concerned that agenda of special session be limited to one item proposed by UK and that it not become, in effect, a preliminary GA.” Later in the same communication, it stated that “Department seeks at this special session to limit Palestine issue to procedural questions only; to establish the necessary machinery proposed by UK for performing preliminary spade work on the problem and then to terminate the special session promptly. Substantive policy on how to deal with Palestine can best be determined in our view after the ad hoc Committee makes its report to the next regular GA session.” (501.BB/4–247)

    In telegram 133, April 9, the Department informed the U.S. Delegation of its views that the “Special GA on Palestine if confined in scope to appointment special committee should be of short duration. It should not be necessary to set up committees of GA as all necessary action can be taken in Plenary Session or in GA sitting as committee of whole.” (501.BB/4–447)

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