867N.01/1601
Rabbi Stephen S. Wise to the Secretary of State
Dear Mr. Secretary: We have come from every part of the United States for the express purpose of asking your active aid on behalf of the lives of tens of thousands of human beings and of the hopes of millions of others. We feel that we are impelled by the traditional American spirit, which has always cherished freedom for itself and has also sympathized with the efforts of others to keep and attain freedom.
Because legal rights and agreements are being flouted by ruthless force, it is incumbent upon the United States, in the name of democracy and just dealing, to reaffirm American adherence to the fundamental principles of justice and fair play and to act in firm resolve to uphold the sanctity of treaties in order that we may do our part to maintain rights guaranteed by international law.
We are, therefore, constrained to voice our sorrow and to express our indignation that Great Britain, one of the bulwarks of the world which we still regard as civilized, has further added to unrest and suffering by publishing last week a White Paper on Palestine which renounces solemn obligations assumed for the establishment of the Jewish National Home.
[Page 762]The fate of great masses of people, made homeless and helpless solely because they are Jews, impels us as Americans to protest against an action which adds cruelly to their already tragic burdens. As Americans we have a direct and practical interest in the Palestine Mandate, under whose provisions alone Great Britain administers Palestine. From the days in which the Balfour Declaration was issued to our own time, successive administrations of the United States have extended sympathy and cooperation to the rebuilding of the Jewish homeland in Palestine.
America’s concern with Palestine, whose award to Great Britain under the Mandate was assented to by the United States, is officially expressed alike in the Joint Resolution of Congress of June 30 [September 21], 1922,74 and in the American-British Mandate Convention of December 3, 1924. That Convention incorporates the language of the Mandate which specifically provides for the establishment of the Jewish National Home in Palestine. That Convention carries the undertaking of Great Britain not to make any changes in the Mandate without securing the assent of the United States Government.
In the years that have intervened, American public funds and private investments sent to Palestine have exceeded $100,000,000. The institutions thus founded and the philanthropies thus created are imperilled by the New British White Paper on Palestine, which repudiates the letter and spirit of the Mandate. Thus, as American citizens, we are given ground for urging action by the United States Government.
We, therefore, respectfully request that the United States Government, not alone because of compassion for refugees expressed in a multiplicity of activities such as the initiation of the Intergovernment Refugee Committee, but also on the ground of American rights jeopardized, make representations to the British Government:
- (a)
- That no action be taken for the implementation of the New White Paper on Palestine until this Government shall have had an opportunity to examine its terms and to pass judgment on its bearing on American rights; and
- (b)
- That the United States Government, on the basis of its convention with Great Britain, cannot recognize action taken under the New White Paper in view of the jeopardy created for American interests.
We earnestly believe that through such representations the United States Government will save a power with whom we are on friendliest terms from the strain created by violation of patent human needs and of the sanctity of international treaty; and will also contribute to safeguarding the survival of great numbers of men, women and [Page 763] children whose intolerable plight must arouse the sympathy of every American who believes in the inalienable right of every human being to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Respectfully yours,
New York
- 42 Stat. 1012.↩