867N.01/10–345

The King of Saudi Arabia ( Abdul Aziz ibn Saud ) to President Truman 55

[Translation]
No. 12/8/3/170

[Here follows first paragraph of a letter from the Saudi Arabian Minister for Foreign Affairs to the Minister in Saudi Arabia, transmitting the text of the King’s letter.]

“Excellency: It was told to me that according to foreign broadcasts, a statement concerning Palestine has been attributed to Your Excellency on August 16, 1945. Our Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked for a clarification of your statement, and received in reply from the United States Legation in Jidda a text of your speech, and this has served to calm us; but we have been made aware lately, through the radio broadcast, of a speech attributed to Your Excellency that you have searched through the papers of the late President, our dear friend, President Roosevelt, and that you were not successful in finding any confirmation of his talk with us regarding the Palestine question. We did not previously publish the subject discussed between us and the late President regarding this matter. However, in some particular cases, we did inform various heads of Arab States concerning that conversation which took place on February 14, 1945, as well as informing them of the letter that he sent to us on the subject, dated April 5, 1945, in reply to the letter we sent to His Excellency.

[Page 756]

We believe that the statement attributed to Your Excellency has been erroneously published, just as in the case of your previous speech. For the clarification of the position regarding ourselves and regarding the policy of the United States toward the Arab people, I ask Your Excellency’s indulgence that we should publish the conversation which took place between us and between His Excellency President Roosevelt on February 14, 1945, and his reply to us on April 5, 1945, so as to make known our position and the position of the United States which we believe, and the whole world believes, that the United States did not enter this war except that the right and justice should triumph, and that it is impossible that she would support the expulsion of a nation from its country so as to replace it with another nation by means of might and force, and under the protection of military forces. Abdul Aziz”

[Here follows closing paragraph of the letter of transmittal from the Saudi Arabian Minister for Foreign Affairs.]

For the Minister of Foreign Affairs
Yusuf Yassin
  1. Copy transmitted to the Department in despatch 179, October 3, 1945, from Jidda: received October 19; a summary of this message was transmitted to the Department in telegram 372, October 2, 1945, 6 p.m., from Jidda (neither printed).