867N.48/53
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs ( Murray ) to the Under Secretary of State ( Welles )
Mr. Welles: Mr. Ernest J. Swift, Vice Chairman in charge of Insular and Foreign Operations, of the American National Red Cross, called me by telephone this morning to state that, at the instance of Rabbi Silver,46 a donation of $25,000 had been promised to the Jewish Agency in Palestine for the relief of sufferers from the recent Italian bombing raids in that country. Mr. Swift wished to know whether the above-mentioned amount could be transmitted by the Department to the American Consul General in Palestine for delivery to the Jewish Agency for relief purposes among the Jews.
I inquired of Mr. Swift whether it had not been the custom of the American Red Cross to ask the advice of the Department prior to the granting of donations of this kind and he said that it was but that the matter had been put through hurriedly last Saturday morning before the Department could be consulted.
I pointed out, in this connection, to Mr. Swift that, while there had as yet been only one bombing of the Jewish city of Tel Aviv, Palestine, Haifa had already been bombed three times with almost the same number of casualties among the Arabs and, in view of the fact that Haifa is one of the terminals of the Iraq Petroleum Company’s pipeline to the Mediterranean and has large quantities of oil stored there in addition to the operation of its refinery, it appeared not unlikely that there would be further and more severe bombings at Haifa in the future with heavy loss of life among the overwhelmingly Arab population of the town.
I also inquired of Mr. Swift as to whether any thought had been given to transmitting funds for relief in Palestine to a relief organization administered by the British, who are the responsible authorities in the country, possibly to some British Red Cross organization there. I added that after all the Jewish Agency was exclusively a political organization designed to further the establishment of a national home in Palestine for the Jewish people and that it would appear highly improper for an American Consular Officer in that country to use exclusively for Jewish relief, funds raised in this country for general relief purposes at home or abroad. Such action would, I felt sure, create a deplorable impression not only among the non-Jewish two-thirds of the population of the country but also among British Government [Page 869] officials and could scarcely fail to be compromising to Mr. Wadsworth47 in his official capacity.
I added further that it seemed somewhat surprising that the American Red Cross should be donating $25,000 for the relief of the Jewish victims of the Italian bombings in Palestine where about one hundred had been killed when only $5,000 was originally donated to Turkey last winter after the earthquake in Anatolia when nearly 40,000 people were killed. While this sum was eventually increased to $10,000, our representatives in Turkey reported later that the assistance coming from this country during that appalling disaster compared unfavorably with the aid rendered by several other countries.
I have discussed this matter meanwhile with Mr. Berle48 and he has talked with Mr. Norman Davis.49 As a result of this discussion, it was agreed that the matter should be reopened with Rabbi Silver, informing him that it would not be feasible to donate the sum in question exclusively for Jewish relief in Palestine, and a means is being sought to generalize the use of funds for the relief of victims regardless of race or religion.