867N.01/8–1946: Telegram
The British Prime Minister (Attlee) to President Truman 52
top secret
London, 19 August,
1946.
Personal and Top Secret. I am now in a position to give a fuller reply to your message of the 13th [12th] August.
- 2.
- It is, of course, a great disappointment to us that you should feel yourself unable to give support to the plan recommended by the Anglo-American Expert Delegations. The discussion of the summary of this plan which we recently presented to Parliament will form the first item on the agenda at the coming conference. We earnestly hope that, as a result of the conference, some solution will emerge which, even if not fully accepted by either Arabs or Jews, may be possible of implementation without too greatly endangering the peace of Palestine or of the Middle East as a whole. But you will appreciate that any such solution must, as matters stand, be one which we can put into effect with our resources alone.
- 3.
- As regards the plan of partition submitted by the Jewish Agency, it is, as I have said, our intention to place the outlines of the provincial autonomy plan before the conference. On various matters, and in particular as regards the boundaries of the provinces and degree of self-Government to be conceded to them, we designedly refrain from committing ourselves in any way when presenting the plan to Parliament. While we are adopting the plan as the initial basis for discussion, we do not propose to take up an immovable position in regard either to the plan itself or to its constituent features in advance of the conference.
- 4.
- It is actually open to the Jews or to the Arabs, if they accept our invitation to attend the conference, to propose alterations in the outline plan as announced, to make recommendations as to its details or to submit counterproposals. All such proposals and recommendations will be given due consideration.
- Copy transmitted to Mr. Acheson by the British Ambassador on August 19. For a slightly different version of this message, see Francis Williams, A Prime Minister Remembers, p. 119.↩