867N.01/7–1844
Memorandum by the Secretary of State to President Roosevelt
I believe that you will be interested in the attached paraphrase of a telegram1 from our Minister in Baghdad, Loy Henderson, summarizing conversations which he has had with members of the Iraqi Government regarding the Palestine plank in the Republican platform. (This plank is similar to that just adopted by the Democratic Convention and in effect provides for free immigration into Palestine and the creation there of a Jewish State.2)
You will note that while the Iraqi Government appreciates the fact that a party platform is not the same as a Government policy, the Cabinet decided to ask Mr. Henderson to inform us that the Iraqi Government is deeply concerned lest the Zionists take advantage of the political situation in this country to commit both major parties to a course which would not be in accord with the war aims of the United Nations.
I have no doubt but that the reaction in the Arab world to the Democratic plank on Palestine will be similar, and in view of the strategic importance to us of the Near East, I believe that it would be advisable for leaders of both parties to refrain from making statements on Palestine during the campaign that might tend to arouse the Arabs or upset the precarious balance of forces in Palestine itself.
- The telegram printed supra.↩
- The plank in the platform of the Democratic National Convention adopted at Chicago on July 24, 1944, reads as follows: “We favor the opening of Palestine to unrestricted Jewish immigration and colonization, and such a policy as to result in the establishment there of a free and democratic Jewish commonwealth.” (House Report No. 1997, 78th Cong., 2d sess., p. 3.)↩