867N.01/11–3045
Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Acheson)
Mr. Wright telephoned me late in the evening to say that he had tried to get the Secretary on the telephone. Not being able to do so, he asked me whether it would be possible for the names of the American members of the Joint Anglo-American Committee of Enquiry into the Palestine question to be announced before Tuesday, December 4. The Embassy had just received a message that Mr. Bevin would like to make a statement in the House of Commons on that date. Mr. Wright said that the message57 had been sent to Mr. Henderson for consideration of the rest of its contents, but that he would like to have an answer on this point immediately if possible.
After speaking with the Secretary, I called Mr. Wright back and told him that, although the Secretary had been spending a very great part of his time in trying to line up a list of top-flight names, he was positive that it would not be possible to complete the list by Tuesday.
[Page 837]Mr. Wright asked whether I thought it would be well to try to have Mr. Bevin postpone his statement, and whether I thought it would cause difficulties if Mr. Bevin did make his statement and gave out the British list without the American list. I said that I had not discussed this with the Secretary and did not feel in a position to express an opinion.
- Not printed: it was concerned with questions relating to the announcement of the composition of the Committee of Inquiry (867N.01/11–3045).↩