867N.01/5–346

Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs (Merriam) to the Under Secretary of State (Acheson)

Assistant Secretary Hilldring, in his memorandum of May 3, states that our military and political interests in Germany and Austria require that we press for immediate implementation of the Committee’s recommendation, and that in order to further our interests in these countries the resettlement of Jewish displaced persons should proceed as expeditiously as possible. He advocates that this Government pursue an aggressive public policy of needling the British into issuing 100,000 immigration certificates for Palestine immediately and without reference to future action on any other aspects of the report.

This recommendation apparently fails to take into account any aspect of the complicated Palestine problem other than the European. Before any action along such lines is contemplated, the following points should be given the most serious consideration:

(1)
The whole question of procedure has already been put up to [Page 598] the President with the Department’s observation that, since the Committee’s ten recommendations form a carefully integrated whole, the various parts cannot be singled out for separate treatment. At the same time we urged that the report as a whole be adopted as this Government’s policy at the earliest possible moment.
(2)
Until the United States Government is prepared to accept the report, which it has not yet done, its status is simply that of a recommendation. It would seem unwise for this Government to take active steps to give effect to it, either in its entirety or in part, before it is adopted as the official policy of this Government.
(3)
Our policy toward, interests in, and relations with the various Arab countries in the Near East, chiefly Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, are of an importance which is certainly commensurate with our interest in the future of the occupied zones of Europe. The Arab reaction to the Committee’s recommendations has been swift and alarming. The Arabs have singled out the recommendation for putting 100,000 Jews into Palestine for criticism of the strongest kind, and they give every indication of the intention to resist, We have many political, economic and educational interests in these countries. Our educational interests, for example, have taken more than a century to build up, and they constituted a sheet anchor in the Middle East when we were militarily weak. These American schools and colleges require Arab good will for their continuance and effectiveness. Our Near Eastern trade and petroleum interests cannot be neglected, nor the desirability of our maintaining friendly relations with the countries located in the vital Near and Middle Eastern area.
(4)
According to sources in close contact with the displaced Jews of Europe, the removal of 100,000 persons from the American zones in Germany and Austria would be a temporary solution at best, as they expect the influx of DP’s from the Soviet Russian zones to continue unabated and soon fill the vacuum.
(5)
The fact that the Committee was bi-national and its report a joint Anglo-American undertaking would seem to preclude unilateral action of any sort on our part, certainly at this stage. If, without full consultation with the British, the President were to issue a statement similar to that recommended in the memorandum under reference, British resentment would follow as a virtual certainty, to the inevitable detriment of our long-range interests in Palestine and elsewhere. It may be recalled that the British Prime Minister reacted strongly to the President’s espousal of the 100,000 recommendation in view of the fact that no accompanying commitment was made to share responsibility for the results of carrying it out.
(6)
Last but not least, this Government has committed itself on various occasions to take no action involving a change in the basic situation in Palestine without full consultation with both Arabs and Jews. We have also made it known that the hearings before the Committee did not constitute this consultation. If all or part of the report were to be put into operation by us without such consultation, it would be regarded as a breach of faith which could not fail to have repercussions of a very serious nature.

Gordon P. Merriam