867N.01/4–1946

Memorandum by the Secretary of State to President Truman

Subject: Mr. Bevin’s16 Request Regarding Report of Palestine Committee of Inquiry

1. I enclose a copy of Lord Halifax’s letter to me of yesterday’s date,17 transmitting a message from Mr. Bevin in which he expresses [Page 585] the earnest hope that no action be taken by the United States Government on the report of the Palestine Committee of Inquiry without prior consultation with him.

Mr. Bevin is also particularly anxious that publication should not take place either in Britain or the United States before he has had an opportunity of consulting the United States Government.

If you concur, I shall inform Lord Halifax that we shall be glad to comply with Mr. Bevin’s request.18

2. In a Top Secret telegram received this morning, Judge Hutcheson states that he is flying to Washington with the report, arriving Sunday, April 21. He hopes that you will be able to see him on Monday, April 22, in order to receive the report.

James F. Byrnes
  1. Ernest Bevin, British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
  2. The British Ambassador’s letter not printed.
  3. Marginal notation by President Truman: “Approved—but it [might] just give the British a chance to pull their usual stunt. H.S.T.”