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

867N.01/4–2347

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Acting Secretary of State

secret

[Washington,] April 23, 1947.

Participants:	Mr. Acheson, Acting Secretary.
	Mr. Henderson, Director, NEA.
	Mr. Shertok, Jewish Agency.

Mr. Shertok, the representative in Washington of the Jewish Agency and a member of the Executive Council of that Organization, called upon me today in order to discuss problems arising from the presentation of the Palestine question to the United Nations. Mr. Henderson was present.

Mr. Shertok made a long oral statement presenting the views of the Agency with regard to the attitude and the positions which in its opinion the United States should take with respect to the handling and disposition of the case before the United Nations. The following represents a summary of what Mr. Shertok had to say:

1. The Jewish Agency opposes the appointment of a neutral committee to consider the Palestine problem. The Agency feels that the question is primarily a great power question and should not be turned over to small states which would be too timid to make the type of bold decisions which the situation demands. Small states appointed to such a committee would in any event be inclined to turn towards the various great powers with the question: “What shall we do?” The great powers should therefore work on the problem themselves. The Agency would prefer that the Soviet Union be not on the committee, but feels that it would be better for it to serve on the committee than for the United States not to be a member.

2. The Agency suggests that the United States present a resolution to the Special Assembly calling upon Great Britain to administer the mandate faithfully. The expression “to administer the mandate faithfully” is intended to include the lifting of restrictions upon Jewish immigration and upon land ownership in Palestine.

3. The Agency also suggests that the American delegation be prepared to rebut any arguments of a substantive nature which might be advanced by the Arab delegates during the course of the Special Assembly. It hopes, for example, that the American delegation will oppose the Arab proposal that the mandate be terminated at once and a Palestinian state be established.

4. The Jewish Agency has written a letter to the Secretary-General asking that it be permitted to appear on the floor of the Assembly in order to present the Jewish case. It is hoped that the United States will support this request. The Arabs are certain to take occasion during the session not only to obtain the adoption of procedures favorable to themselves, but also to attack the Jewish side of the case. It would manifestly be unfair if there would be no spokesman for the Jews to present their side of the case.

5. He is sure that the United States will oppose Arab demands that all immigration into Palestine be stopped during the time that the Palestine question is under discussion in the United Nations, and hopes that the rejection of such demands will not be considered as a concession to the Jews. A decision sharply to increase Jewish immigation to Palestine would, of course, be a concession.

6. The element of time is of crucial importance and the great powers concerned, including the United States, cannot afford to escape their international responsibilities by postponing the making of decisions. They cannot run away from the problem. They must grapple with it courageously. At the present time there are two agencies in Palestine which are doing great harm to the country and are rendering the solution progressively more difficult. These agencies, while opposed to each other, nevertheless are working towards a common end, namely, the ruin of the country. These agencies are the British military administration and the Jewish terrorists. Unless some effort is made at once to break the vicious circle of repression breeding terror and terror leading to new repression, the situation in Palestine might well become so desperate that consideration of the problem by the United Nations would become a mere academic process. It is hoped that the United States Government will endeavor to impress upon the British Government the importance of making some move such as lifting restrictions on immigration which might tend to break this circle. In the meantime, the situation of the Jews in the detention camps in Germany is deteriorating rapidly. The anti-Semitic feeling in Germany is so intense at present that Jews cannot find a place for themselves in the economy of the country. They, therefore, are being driven into blackmarketing and other illicit activities with the result that charges are increasing that illegal trading and violation of controls on trade are racial characteristics peculiar to the Jews. The question is: “What will the United States do at this time to help solve the Palestine problem?”

7. The Agency desires to know just what is the basic policy of the United States at the present time with regard to Palestine. Has the United States a definite policy and is it prepared to back this policy? If it has not, the situation of the Jews is almost hopeless since they have no other powerful friend on whom they can depend.

The following represents a summary of my reply:

1. The American Government is preparing for the Special Session of the General Assembly with a full realization of the importance of the Palestine problem not only to the parties most immediately concerned, but to the whole world. We believe that this may be the last chance for the solving of this problem in a peaceful and fair manner. If this chance is missed, chaos and disorders might well result in Palestine of so serious a nature that that country would be ruined physically and morally. We are, furthermore, convinced that if the United Nations is to meet with success in its efforts to solve the Palestine problem, the decision which it makes not only must be fair, but must be one which has the support of world opinion. It will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to enforce any decision which does not rally the support of most of the peoples of the world. It is also the opinion of this Government that if a decision is to have the support of world opinion, it must clearly have been reached after careful study and consideration in an atmosphere free from pressures on the part of the great powers and from intrigues behind the scenes. It is our belief that we can best contribute to the reaching of a fair and enforceable decision by doing our part to maintain proceedings on the highest possible level and to limit the activities of the Special Assembly to the setting up of machinery for giving the problem the careful and impartial study which it deserves.

2. At the present time we are inclined to the opinion that perhaps the most effective type of machinery to study the problem would be a committee created by the Special Assembly composed of perhaps nine or ten so-called neutral powers; that is, countries other than the Great Powers and countries which have already taken a definite position with regard to Palestine. Such a committee would be called upon to examine during the next few months such data as are already available with regard to the Palestine question; it would assemble additional data by such means as it considered desirable, such as the holding of hearings at which representatives of governments or organizations as well as private persons could appear; it would hold its meetings in whatever locality it might choose; and it might visit Palestine or elsewhere if it considered such visits would be helpful; it would be expected to submit to the regular session of the General Assembly in the fall such data as it has assembled in a form convenient for study, together with such recommendations as it might decide to make for the solution of the problem. We are inclined to believe that the other members of the United Nations as well as the world in general might give more weight to the findings of a committee of this character than to those of a committee in which the Great Powers are included.

3. Since we are of the opinion that the Special Session should, if possible, limit its work to matters of a procedural character, we would probably not be inclined to present or support any resolution calling upon Great Britain faithfully to administer the Mandate. In order that the Assembly should not become involved at this time in arguments relating to the substance of the problem, we would probably oppose the introduction of any resolution calling for either an immediate increase or decrease of Jewish immigration to Palestine. We have been constantly endeavoring to prevail upon the British Government, thus far without success, appreciably to increase the Jewish immigration quotas for Palestine. The British Government has consistently taken the position that increases at this time of these quotas would result in a deterioration rather than in an improvement in the situation in Palestine.

4. We are not convinced that the absence of a representative of the Jewish Agency on the floor of the Assembly during this session would necessarily be to the disadvantage of the Zionists. If, at the Special Session, various members of the Assembly, taking advantage of their right to speak, should endeavor to distort facts in their own favor or to insist upon procedures which manifestly would not permit all parties fairly and fully to present their views at the proper time, they are likely to injure their own case rather than that of the parties whom they tried to place at a disadvantage. The Agency should, of course, be given every chance to present its views with regard to the substance of the case to such a committee as the Special Session creates.

5. We fully realize the existence of the vicious circle to which Mr. Shertok referred. As already stated, we have been endeavoring to prevail upon the British to permit an increase in Jewish immigration, and we have also on a number of occasions expressed our abhorrence of the employment of terror as a political instrument in Palestine. We shall not hesitate to take advantage of any opportunity which might present itself in order to endeavor to effect a break in this circle. We are also deeply concerned with regard to the decline in morale of the displaced Jews in the detention camps in Central Europe and shall continue to make every possible and proper effort on their behalf.

6. We have nothing to add at this time to what has already been said regarding the policy of the United States with regard to Palestine. We shall continue to make a careful study of the problem in the light of the present situation and future developments and shall strive for the attainment of a fair, equitable and enforceable solution.