867N.00/450b: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Turkey ( MacMurray )

26. Deep concern is felt in important Jewish circles in this country over recommendations believed to be contained in the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry2 into the recent disorders in Palestine. It is feared that the Report will recommend a complete cessation of Jewish immigration into Palestine or some sort of cantonization of the country. The view has been expressed that a prosperous National Home for the Jews in Palestine will serve as a stabilizing factor in the region of the Eastern Mediterranean and that it would therefore be in the interest of Turkey to give moral support to the development of the National Home.

I would appreciate your considered opinion as to whether views in the above sense would be favorably received by Atatürk3 if you were instructed to seek an audience for that purpose.

Hull
  1. For the appointment of this Commission and its objectives, see despatch No. 2404, July 31, 1936, from the Ambassador in the United Kingdom, ibid., p. 445.
  2. Kemal Atatürk, President of Turkey.