867N.01/2093
Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by the Secretary of State
Some three days after my conversation with the British Ambassador2 on December twenty-second,3 I had a further conversation with him on the telephone regarding the Jewish question. The Ambassador said that he had just heard from Mr. Eden4 to the effect that they were giving urgent consideration to my suggestion about the White Paper5 and related phases of the Jewish situation. I thanked him and said that that in itself would not be sufficient unless he contemplated a further reply which would give this Government a chance to say something publicly on the White Paper. I desired respectfully to urge that the British Government acquiesce in our saying something just as Mr. Churchill6 was saying something on this question to important people who are interested in it.
- Viscount Halifax.↩
- See memorandum of December 22, 1943, Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. iv, p. 827.↩
- Anthony Eden, British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.↩
- British Cmd. 6019: Palestine, Statement of Policy, May 1939. The immigration clauses of the White Paper, establishing a new policy for Jewish immigration into Palestine, provided for “… the admission, as from the beginning of April this year, of some 75,000 immigrants over the next five years.… After the period of five years no further Jewish immigration will be permitted unless the Arabs of Palestine are prepared to acquiesce in it.…” For correspondence regarding American interest in the White Paper, see Foreign Relations, 1939, vol. iv, pp. 732 ff.↩
- Winston S. Churchill, British Prime Minister.↩