867N.01/1735
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Chief of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs (Alling)
While calling today on another matter the Turkish Ambassador11 said that he had been rather disturbed by a newspaper report to the effect that seventy United States Senators had joined in making a declaration calling for “every possible encouragement to the movement for the restoration of the Jews in Palestine”. The Ambassador said that in his opinion such activities were particularly harmful to the British cause in the Near East and might also be expected to have unfavorable repercussions for the Jews themselves. The Ambassador added that his Government had had long experience in dealing with the Arabs and knew their mentality thoroughly. There was not the slightest question in his mind that activities in the United States favoring further Jewish immigration into and control of Palestine were used by the Axis Powers in their propaganda with the Arab countries. Every such activity as that of the American Palestine Committee only further inflamed Arab opinion and increased the difficulties of the British in the vital area of the Near East. I told the Ambassador that of course the Senators and Members of Congress were quite free to join any committee which they pleased and that obviously the executive branch of the Government had no control over such activities. The Ambassador said he fully realized this fact, but he wondered whether the Senators themselves realized that in foreign countries their activities on behalf of the Jewish National Home could only be interpreted as representing the policy of the United States Government. He said that people abroad were generally quite aware of the importance and influence of the United States Senators and attached great importance to declarations such as that which had been recently made by the seventy Senators. The Ambassador went on to say that any activities which served to inflame the Arabs in the Near East and to add to the difficulties of the British were naturally of great interest to his own Government, which was in alliance with Great Britain. He added that the question indeed went beyond the Arab countries and affected India as well. He said that he had many close friends among the Indian Moslems and that he could give me his solemn assurance that the Moslem group in India upon whom Great Britain depended for support in that country could be only adversely affected by statements such as that made by the seventy [Page 602] Senators. He said that it was unnecessary for him to stress the importance to Great Britain of the loyal Moslems of India and the unfortunate repercussions that might ensue if they felt that their coreligionists in Palestine were not being given equitable treatment.
I asked the Ambassador if he desired me to make a memorandum of this conversation for the information of the executive officers of the Department, and he said he would be very glad to have that done.
- Mehmet Münir Ertegün.↩