867N.01/2251: Telegram
The Minister in Iraq (Henderson) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 11—8:30 a.m.]
56. A Reuters despatch which has thus far been withheld from publication here by the British reads as follows:
“Rabbis Stephen Wise and Abba Silver67 representing Zionist Palestine movement said today that President Roosevelt authorized them to make this statement:68 American Government has never given its approval to White Paper of 1939. President is happy that doors of Palestine are today open to Jewish refugees. When future decisions are reached full justice will be done to those who seek Jewish national home for which our Government and American people have always had deepest sympathy—and today more than ever in view of tragic plight of hundreds of thousands of homeless Jewish refugees.”69
I should appreciate receiving confirmation or correction of the statement allegedly authorized by the President. If the statement is substantially as authorized please instruct me how to reply when I am approached by the Iraqi Government since the statement must eventually become known.
- Dr. Stephen S. Wise and Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, co-chairmen of the American Zionist Emergency Council.↩
- Copies of the statement were handed out at a dinner of the American Palestine Committee held in Washington on the evening of March 9, 1944.↩
- Telegram 585, March 11, 8 a.m., from Cairo reported that text of this statement was printed in the Arabic language paper Al Misri that day (867N.01/2255).↩