867N.48/5–449
Memorandum by the Secretary of State to the President
Subject: Repatriation of Arab Refugees from Palestine
At our meeting on Monday1 you directed me to submit to you the estimated cost for a program of repatriation and resettlement of the Arab refugees from Palestine. This was for the purpose of having the estimated cost subjected to orderly consideration by the Budget Bureau and the Treasury Department before the matter came to you for decision.
You will recall that the matter comes up at the present time not in connection with any announcement of detailed figures, but with Mr. Ethridge’s desire to lay some plan for solution of the problem before the Delegates meeting at Lausanne. Mr. Ethridge did not wish to do this unless the United States Government would agree in principle to substantial United States financial assistance in carrying out the program. He felt, and we agreed, that he was wise in this, that to make a proposal and later have it fail for lack of financial support would affect the United States interests adversely in the Middle East.2
- See Secretary Acheson’s memorandum of May 2, p. 965.↩
- Attached to this memorandum is a second memorandum dated May 4, sent to President Truman by Secretary Acheson, which dealt with the estimated cost of the Palestine refugee problem. It is not printed; for the version of May 9, which superseded it, see p. 983.↩