867N.01/6–1446: Telegram
The British Prime Minister (Attlee) to President Truman 73
Personal and Top Secret. I am glad to be able to tell you that a delegation of British officials has now been constituted for the purpose of discussing the Report of the Anglo-American Committee of Enquiry with the United States officials whom you are sending to London. The Delegation is composed of Representatives of the Foreign Office, Colonial Office, Treasury and the Services. Its Chairman is Sir Norman Brook, additional Secretary to the Cabinet.
This Delegation will make contact immediately with the advance party expected tomorrow from Washington, with a view to preparing the ground for their discussions with the Representatives of your Cabinet Committee. I should like, however, to draw your attention again to the decision of His Majesty’s Government, to which I referred in my telegram of June 10th, that we cannot determine our policy on any one of the Committee’s recommendations until we have examined the results of the official consultations on the Report as a whole. More particularly, we cannot contemplate accepting the proposal to admit large numbers of Jews to Palestine without very careful consideration of the effects which such a decision, when announced, would have in the light of the other proposals we were making at the same time. Tension is mounting in Palestine and we are satisfied that precipitate action on the immigration question alone would provoke widespread violence. I am sure you will appreciate that His Majesty’s Government cannot take this risk.
- Copy transmitted to Mr. Acheson by the British Ambassador, Lord Inverchapel, on June 15.↩