867N.01/1–3045
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Acting Secretary of State
The Egyptian Minister19 called on me this afternoon at his request.
The Minister said that he did not wish today to take up with me the various problems between our Governments but he turned to the question of Palestine and said that in his opinion Palestine was one of the great danger spots of the world and, just as the Crimean War [Page 683] had started in Palestine (?),20 the development of unrest in that area might lead to another war in the future. He thought that Palestine should be a country where Mohammedans, Christians and Jews could live amicably and without the intrusion of politics, and he believed that sometime the problems of Palestine should be thrashed out around a green table, where much could be accomplished.
The Minister said further that Egypt, as a small country, depended greatly on the sympathetic and moral support of the United States, which the Egyptians knew to be a disinterested country without a desire for the acquisition of further territory.
[Here follows conversation relating to personal and social amenities.]