Office of the Historian

840.48: Refugees/1608: Telegram

The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy) to the Secretary of State

London, May 9, 1939—8 p.m.
[Received May 9—4:30 p.m.]

648. Saw MacDonald this evening. The Government tomorrow will accept the experts’ report on British Guiana58 for settlement of the Jews in a preliminary statement and will indicate their willingness to proceed to help on the colonization.

MacDonald is sending to Lindsay59 tomorrow the White Paper on Palestine which he proposes to make public next Monday60 in Parliament. Lindsay has instructions to show it to you immediately on arrival. I judge from what he told me in a general way that the Jews will not be pleased with it, but the Government feels that it cannot delay the matter any longer and that it has made the only fair decision.

Kennedy
  1. British Cmd. 6014: Report of the British Guiana Refugee Commission to the Advisory Committee on Political Refugees appointed by the President of the United States of America, May 1939; and British Cmd. 6029: Appendices to the Report …↩
  2. Sir Ronald Lindsay, British Ambassador in the United States.↩
  3. May 15.↩