867N.01/10–3144: Telegram
The Minister in Iraq (Henderson) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 1—9:33 a.m.]
237. ReLegs 230, October 21. The Iraqi press continues to remain editorially silent regarding the subject of Zionist activities in the United States. The Conservative Arab nationalist an-Nida on October 24 carried a Reuters despatch reporting a statement by Rabbi Wise to the effect that the President in his capacity as a presidential candidate has promised to support unlimited immigration into Palestine and to send a message to the Forty-Ninth [Forty-Seventh] American Zionist Congress. The pro-royal family al-Bilad on October 27 published a collection of statements relating to Palestine ostensibly emanating from various parts of the world. These statements were [Page 627] so arranged that those showing sentiments in the United States favorable to the Zionists alternated with those indicating British support of the Arab cause. No other statements of this kind have thus far been published except those reported in my 230.
- 2.
- The Minister for Foreign Affairs tells me that these statements have been published without his knowledge and contrary to his directions and that he is again requesting the Ministry of Interior to keep stories of this nature out of the press, at least until after the American elections. He states that knowledge gained from articles condemning pro-Zionism in the United States which are appearing in the press of neighboring Arab countries and information gleaned from foreign radio broadcasts are rendering it increasingly difficult for the Government to restrain the local press.
- 3.
- The Minister says that he will be compelled to lift the lid after the elections. He will do everything possible to prevent a sudden avalanche of news on the subject and to prevail upon the press to handle pro-Zionist activities in the United States in such a manner as to create a minimum amount of resentment in Iraq against the Government and people of the United States.
- He hopes that he will be successful in view of the importance to Iraq of the maintenance of friendly relations with the United States in convincing the press that it could best serve the Arab cause by concentrating its fire upon the Zionist cause, methods and activities rather than upon the United States and [apparent omission] Americans whose support of Zionism he is still convinced is primarily due to ignorance or misinformation. He points out, however, that if the United States Government actually begins to take steps to implement pre-election statements supporting the Zionist cause, Arab friendship for and trust in the United States will change instantly in spite of any restraining measures which the Government might take into a feeling of betrayal and into a resentment which will render further friendly relation impossible. Such a development, he says, might appear unimportant to a great power like the United States but it would represent a bitter defeat to those forces in Iraq who have been endeavoring to lead the Arab people along the paths of the great Western Democracies and who have been pinning their hopes for the future upon the maintenance of good will between the Arabs and the democratic Western World.
- 4.
- The Minister adds that he has reminded his colleagues who have been disquieted lest they find themselves facing a fait accompli in Palestine of the statement of the American Government to the effect that the settlement of the Palestine question should be taken only after a full discussion with the Arabs as well as the Jews.