File No. 867.48/703
The British Ambassador ( Spring Rice) to the Counselor for the Department of State ( Polk)
[Received December 27.]
My Dear Mr. Counsellor: I noticed in the newspapers that the Jews of this country with their usual generosity were sending money to be used in the relief of their co-religionists in the Holy Land, and I was, indeed, approached on the matter by one of them.
[Page 552]In reply to enquiries which I made at London by telegraph, I have been informed that it is proposed to send the eminent Doctor Wise [Weizmann] at the head of a small committee to organize relief measures, but that in the meantime there does exist a body named the “Special Committee” under the leadership of a Mr. Jack Mossui [Mosseri?] which has its offices at the British Headquarters in Cairo, and that this is the best channel through which at the present time assistance can be rendered: the amounts forwarded ought to be limited, it was added, to such sums as are absolutely indispensable for the most pressing necessities.
I should be greatly obliged if you would bring these facts to the knowledge of the parties concerned, and if you would lend me your assistance, so that the desires of the British authorities, who are doing all that is in their power to cope with the situation, may be duly heeded and their work accordingly facilitated.
Believe me [etc.]