867N.01/2251½
Memorandum by the Director of the Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs ( Murray ) to the Under Secretary of State ( Stettinius )
Mr. Stettinius: At your suggestion I joined Mr. Dunn56 during a call from Mr. McCloy on Thursday, March 2, to discuss the present status of the resolutions on Palestine.
Mr. McCloy stated that General Marshall had been invited personally by Senator Connally to discuss informally with him in his office and with “several members of the Committee” the War Department’s attitude toward the Palestine resolutions. When General Marshall got to Senator Connally’s office he found that the whole Committee had foregathered there so that his remarks were heard by all the members.
Mr. McCloy also informed me that he had prepared for General Marshall a careful memorandum57 outlining the points that he should bring out during the discussion with the members of the Foreign Relations Committee.
Meanwhile, Chairman Bloom of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House had asked Mr. McCloy and General Handy to appear before that Committee. If and when such an appearance occurs Mr. McCloy said he intends to follow the same line taken by General Marshall upon his, Mr. McCloy’s, advice.
Mr. McCloy added that Chairman Bloom was expected to call upon him at the War Department that afternoon and that Bloom was endeavoring to induce the competent officials of the War Department to agree to some substitute resolution on Palestine to be introduced in Congress. Mr. McCloy feels that it would be a mistake for the War Department to be drawn into any discussions of this kind, and I inferred that he expected to tell Congressman Bloom as much.
In conclusion, Mr. McCloy expressed the view that the Department of State should take a more active part in opposing these resolutions since they had political as well as military implications. I reminded [Page 582] Mr. McCloy of the earlier experience the Department had had in endeavoring to obtain the support of the War Department to the issue of a joint American-British statement on Palestine58 and of the complete lack of cooperation of the War Department in that instance. It was, I added, our distinct feeling that at the present time military considerations far outweigh any possible political implications in this matter, as was clear from the text of Mr. Stimson’s letter to Senator Connally59 on this subject.
With reference to Mr. Stimson’s above-mentioned letter, I informed Mr. McCloy that the competent officials of this Department were strongly of the opinion that the letter should be published at the earliest possible moment. Mr. McCloy remarked that he did not know why Mr. Stimson had hesitated to publish the letter but believed it was because he was not sure that General Marshall would approve. I expressed the view that since the President himself desired the letter published and since the substance and the purport of the Stimson letter were pretty generally known on the Hill, there would seem to be no compelling reason for withholding publication at this time. Mr. McCloy did not disagree with this view.