Office of the Historian

867N.01/1–1245

Memorandum by the Acting Secretary of State to President Roosevelt

Washington, January 12, 1945.

I think you will want to note these two airgrams from our Minister at Baghdad,9 the first of which outlines the reaction in Iraq to the revival of the Palestine resolutions in Congress,10 while the second gives the text of a note from the Iraqi Foreign Office to our Minister summarizing the position of Iraq and the other Arab countries in this regard.

These airgrams show quite clearly that the Arabs regard, and will continue to regard, the Palestine question with the utmost concern. Zionist activities in this country will remain the gravest threat to friendly relations between the United States and the countries of the Near East until a solution to the problem is reached.

We are sending copies of the Iraqi note to Tom Connally and Sol Bloom.11

J[oseph] C. Grew
  1. Airgram A–75, December 19, 1944, and airgram A–77, December 21, 1944, Foreign Relations, 1944, vol. v, pp. 649 and 652, respectively. Loy W. Henderson was Minister in Iraq.↩
  2. For documentation concerning the Palestine Resolutions, see ibid., index, p. 1338, entries under Palestine: Resolutions in U.S. Congress.↩
  3. Chairmen of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives, respectively.↩