Office of the Historian

867N.01/2275a

Memorandum by the Under Secretary of State (Stettinius) to President Roosevelt 62

[Washington,] March 4, 1944.

You will recall some weeks ago you and I had quite a discussion relative to the Palestine situation with the possibility of the British and ourselves issuing a joint statement.63 At that time you did not think you wished to take any action until later on. Since then there have been quite a number of new developments, which are summarized below, and I would urge that you have a talk with Colonel Hoskins64 relative to the whole question if it is possible for you to do so in the relatively near future.

I am attaching a paraphrase of telegram No. 57, February 27, 11 a.m., from our Legation at Jidda,64a which transmits a protest from [Page 587] King Ibn Saud against the Palestine Resolutions in Congress. Protests have also been received from the Egyptian, Iraqi and Syrian Governments.

I am more and more convinced that the time has come to clarify the situation through the issuance of a joint American-British statement affirming (after a suitable introduction);

(a)
that no decision affecting the basic situation in Palestine will be taken without full and prior consultation with all concerned, including both Arabs and Jews;
(b)
that if, prior to the conclusion of the war, the interested Arabs and Jews can reach a friendly understanding through their own efforts, such a development will be most welcome; and
(c)
that in the absence of such an understanding, there will be a review of the Palestine situation after the war has been won, with the objective of establishing a just and definitive solution equitable to all parties concerned.

The British have indicated that they would welcome such a statement, and if you approve, I shall promptly take the matter up with them. I shall, of course, submit for your final approval the exact text which may be agreed upon with the British Foreign Office.

E. R. Stettinius, Jr.

  1. Marginal notation: “ERS Jr. OK FDR”. In a memorandum of March 8 to the Director of the Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs (Murray) the Under Secretary wrote:

    “The President has just returned to me the memorandum which I sent to him on March 4 regarding Palestine, copy of which I enclose herewith.

    “Would you be good enough to give the most careful thought to the question of exactly when and how we should take up with the British the issuance of a joint statement on Palestine.” (867N.01/2275a)

    ↩
  2. Regarding the decision “to review from time to time the question of issuing a joint statement in regard to Palestine,” made by President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill at the First Quebec Conference, August 17–24, 1943, see telegram 6063, October 1, 1943, to London, Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. iv, p. 814; also the memorandum of August 21 and footnote 88, ibid., p. 804. Documentation concerning the First Quebec Conference is scheduled for publication in a subsequent volume of Foreign Relations.↩
  3. Lt. Col. Harold B. Hoskins, Special Representative of President Roosevelt on two missions to the Near East in 1942 and 1943; for correspondence relating to these missions, see Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. iv, pp. 24 ff., and ibid., 1943, vol. iv, bracketed note on p. 19.↩
  4. For text of telegram, see p. 577.↩