Office of the Historian

865C.01/4–1746

The League of Arab States to the Secretary of State81

Cairo, April 15, 1946.

The Secretary General of the League of Arab States presents his compliments to His Excellency the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of the U.S.A. and has the honour, in the name of the League, to expose the following:—

On the 28th of September 1945, the Secretary General of the Arab League had the honour of presenting, in the name of the Arab League and authorised by every state of this League, a memorandum to the Council of the Foreign Ministers of the Great Powers82 meeting in London last autumn, concerning Libya (Tripolitania and Cyrenaica).

The Secretary General has the honour to present this note, in the name of the League and all the States represented in it, sure also of the support of the Libyan Arabs, and expressing their wishes namely:—

1.
That any idea of dividing this country into various regions, to be trusted or annexed to various powers or states will be rejected unanimously by the people supported by the Arab World.
2.
That any action determining the future and fate of the Libyan people, without giving them full chance of a free plebiscite under the direction of the United Nations and the Arab League, will be opposed by the people of the country with all their power.
3.
That the people of Libya are entitled by the accepted human right of self determination, by the Atlantic Charter, and by the spirit of the Charter of San Francisco, to be consulted to express their own free wish in the determination of the form of government they want.
4.
That any claim coming from Italian sources to reestablish any connection with Italy in any governmental form whatever shall be opposed by arms and every other means at the disposal of the Libyan people.
The history of their struggle during this century with Italy is a history of more than twenty years fighting, which has cost the country the loss of nearly half of its population.
5.
In the previous note, the Secretary General had explained that the unity of the country is absolutely necessary to its welfare, and indispensable for its economic development, its good administration and general progress. Each region of the country is dependent on the others; and separation means economic starvation.

The tribal and sedentary populations of Libya had kept, in normal circumstances, a certain agreeable standard of living through free movement in the whole land and by free exchange between its various regions. The history of the country since the Phoenician and Greek clays to the present time indicates how necessary it was to keep Libya under one united administration, capable of having free access to its adjacent lands either in the East or West or even in the South.

Therefore, any idea of dividing the country into zones of influence or trusteeship is dictated surely by foreign motives and ambitions against the interest of the people of the country themselves.

As for the form of government Libya should have, it should rest with the Libyan people themselves to decide. Their will, they have amply manifested in rejecting foreign domination; and their efficiency to run their country was proved by their ability to carry a resistance of twenty years under various forms of national administrations and in spite of the overwhelming powers of destruction applied to these administrations. They were able to support themselves under the most trying circumstances of twenty years struggle, mainly by their own resources, material and moral.

Their share in the defeat of the fascist regime was recognised; and they have a right claim on those states, now making peace with Italy, to remember that the Libyan people were their partners in that war, and that they have contributed to the victory not only by an organised army of thousands of Arabs from the beginning of the war, but by various means well known to the British and American Commanders.

The Arab League is interested in seeing justice done to a brother people, in supporting them to secure their right of self-determination, [Page 62] and in objecting, as a matter of principle, to a reestablishment of any foreign domination over a people by coercion or force.

The Arab League believe that it is not only its duty towards a section of the Arab nation to stand for its freedom, but being fundamentally an institution for the maintenance of peace in the Arab World, it is convinced that any decision taken against the expressed will of the Libyan people, supported by their Arab brothers, would certainly introduce a dangerous element of subversion, disturbance and even war.

Therefore, in the name of this League and in the name of the Libyan people, the Secretary General appeals to you for foresighted, disinterested judgement of this case and to give a chance to the Libyan people to enjoy their right of independence and the right of choosing themselves the form of government most suited to their desires and needs.

The Secretary General of the League of Arab States avails himself of this opportunity to renew to His Excellency the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of U.S.A. the assurances of his highest consideration.

  1. This communication was transmitted to the American Legation at Cairo under cover of a note of April 16, 1946, from the Secretary General of the League of Arab States, Abdelrahman Azzam, not printed. The note and the communication were transmitted to the American Embassy in Paris where it was received on April 26, 1946. Similar communications were apparently sent to the other members of the Council of Foreign Ministers.

    Members of the League of Arab States were Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen.

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  2. Not printed.↩