867N.01/12–1646: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Embassy in Egypt
62. Deptel 2036 Dec 19.1 Please transmit following reply to Arab League note Dec 7:2
“I have the honor to refer to my note of recent date in which I informed you that I was transmitting to the Secretary of State at your request, a declaration of the Council of the League of Arab States, dated December 2, 1946, with regard to Palestine.
My Government has requested me in reply to express its deep gratification at the firm feelings of friendship which exist between the United States and all of the Arab States, and its own hope that these friendly relations will continue to develop.
My Government has noted the Council’s statement that expressions of its interest in the problem of Palestine and recent declarations and statements by the President of the United States relating to Palestine have given rise to anxiety throughout the Arab States and the Moslem World.
Since the termination of the first World War, the Government and people of the United States have given support to the concept of the Jewish National Home in Palestine. My Government is therefore acting only in keeping with the traditional policies of the United States when it advocates the taking of measures which tend to strengthen the realization of this concept.
It has also been noted that the Council has requested the Government of the United States to take measures necessary to put an end to efforts in support of Jewish immigration into Palestine from regions under American occupation in Europe.
It may be recalled that it was not until the defeat of the Axis in Europe that the world fully comprehended the tragic plight of the surviving victims of Nazi persecution, including particularly many persons of Jewish faith. It was during this and subsequent periods that the President of the United States suggested that all countries have a common responsibility for working out a solution which would permit the survivors who must leave Europe to find new homes where they may dwell in peace and security. Many of these Jewish people, after years of persecution, look to Palestine as a haven. It would appear to be contrary to the humanitarian instincts of all peoples if the survivors remaining in displaced persons centers in Europe, including [Page 1004] numbers of unfortunate Jews, were denied the right to seek haven in other lands, including Palestine.
My Government shares the hope, expressed by the Council in its declaration, that an honorable and just settlement may be reached which will contribute to the establishment and maintenance of peace throughout the world.
(Complimentary close)”
Repeat to Arab capitals by airgram.
- Not printed.↩
- See telegram 1963, December 16, 6 p. m., from Cairo, Foreign Relations, 1946, vol. vii, p. 731.↩