867N.5151/8: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy)
1269. Your 2014, October 12.31 The American Consul at Jerusalem reports that the Treasurer of the Palestine Government has stated that he will strictly enforce requirement that American citizens temporarily or permanently resident in Palestine must offer for sale at once all foreign exchange in specified currencies, including bank balances in the United States, and that prosecutions will shortly be initiated in cases of non-compliance.
The Department is informing the Consul that the British Government has granted American citizens broad exemptions from similar provisions in the British regulations, and is instructing him to inform the Treasurer and ask that he delay action until he shall have communicated with the British authorities.
An attempt to enforce regulations in the matter indicated by the Palestine Treasurer would produce great unsettlement and protest on the part of the 9,000 American citizens resident in Palestine. Please endeavor to get the British Government to have the Palestine authorities waive the requirements in so far as concerns American citizens, as has been done in the United Kingdom and in British colonial possessions. The Department is informing Jerusalem of this request.
- Not printed.↩