Office of the Historian

867N.01/5–2846: Telegram

The Minister in Saudi Arabia (Eddy) to the Secretary of State

secret
Jidda, May 28, 1946—6 p.m.
[Received May 28—12:15 p.m.]

165. 1. In audience today Amir Faisal handed me sealed personal letter from King Abdul Aziz to President Truman53 for me to carry and deliver earliest possible.

2. Amir Faisal said

“You will understand that no action can possibly be taken by Saudi Govt on projects of cooperation such as TWA proposals or Treaty of Commerce and Friendship54 so long as we are in doubt about the intentions of your Govt toward us. It would be useless to discuss specific lines of cooperation so long as the atmosphere is clouded by [Page 616] grave distrust of the basic USA policy in the Middle East. I personally still hope that your Govt will not sacrifice the good will and the considerable investment of the American people in the Middle East in favor of Zionism. Surely the mutual best interests in this area of 140,000,000 Americans and of 45,000,000 Arabs will prevail against the special pleading of almost 5,000,000 Jewish lobbyists. It is precisely America’s total interest in the Middle East that would be sacrificed.

3. If I, one of the few Arabians who know and love America, am disillusioned, imagine the state of mind of my fellow countrymen who do not know the USA. Yet as matters now stand, I would not wish to return to the USA where the friendship for which I worked there, as you have worked here, appears to be held in contempt.

4. The last communication from your Govt, the alleged ‘consultation’, brought the worst injury to date. It petulantly asks for quick and constructive comment on a problem which is much more our concern than America’s, and it was followed by an announcement of an immigration policy for Palestine which renders the pretense at prior consultation a mockery. The Arab nations will shortly determine a Palestine policy for themselves.”

Sent Dept as 165; repeated Cairo as 73; Jerusalem 4; Beirut 3; Baghdad 5.

Eddy
  1. Copy not available.↩
  2. For previous documentation on this subject, see Foreign Relations, 1945, vol. viii, pp. 1032 ff.↩