867N.01/2373
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State ( Berle ) to the Secretary of State
Mr. Secretary:
H. Res. 418 and 419
“Resolved, that the United States shall use its good offices and take appropriate measures to the end that the doors of Palestine shall be [Page 561] opened for free entry of Jews into that country, and that there shall be full opportunity for colonization so that the Jewish people may ultimately reconstitute Palestine as a free and democratic Jewish commonwealth.”
(This is approved by both McCormack7 and Martin.8)
Mr. Sol Bloom9 telephoned me today to state that the foregoing resolution had been introduced by a Republican and a Democrat,10 and approved by the majority and minority leaders.
Unless otherwise advised, he plans to call his Committee for Tuesday; have no hearings but merely read Prime Minister Churchill’s statement objecting to the White Paper;11 and then report the resolution out favorably and let it go at that.
- John W. McCormack, Majority Leader, House of Representatives.↩
- Joseph W. Martin, Jr., Minority Leader, House of Representatives.↩
- Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives.↩
- Representatives Ranulf Compton of Connecticut and James A. Wright of Pennsylvania, respectively.↩
- The New York Times had reported on January 18, 1944, that the American Jewish Committee, a non-Zionist organization but opposed to the White Paper, had submitted a memorandum to the British Ambassador, Lord Halifax, calling attention to the Churchill opposition to the White Paper policy of the 1939 British Government; for Mr. Churchill’s speech in opposition in the House of Commons as a private member, on May 23, 1939, see Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons, 5th series, vol. 347, cols. 2167 ff.↩