890E.01/123: Telegram
The Consul General at Beirut ( Engert ) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 7—8:59 a.m.]
35. My 11, January 16. Lebanese Minister of External Affairs would be grateful if the Department could express an opinion as to the practicability of his proposal.
In this connection the President of Syria has just sent a verbal message to me to the effect that the Syrian Government was prepared to make any provisional arrangement we wished to safeguard all American interests until after the war. He states German propaganda is spreading reports that the only reason the United States refuses to recognize Syrian independence is that we are preparing a scheme for the extension of Jewish influence in these territories and therefore do not wish to tie our hands. Also because we have no confidence whatever in the stability of the Levant States.
Repeated to London. By mail to Cairo.