Foreign Relations of the United States, 1947, The Near East and Africa, Volume V

867N.01/1–1047: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Embassy in the United Kingdom

top secret

Washington, January 14, 1947—7 p. m.

219. Embtel 207 Jan 10, 3d par.¹ Goldmann was probably referring to suggestion contained in Grady–Morrison plan² that President recommend to Congress granting $250,000,000 loan for economic development in Near East including Palestine and $50,000,000 grant in aid to raise Arab living standards in Palestine. This Govt was unable to support Grady–Morrison plan. It has not yet made commitment with regard to what financial assistance it might recommend to Congress in case partition is decided upon as workable solution.

President will probably make some definite recommendation to this Congress providing for admission of displaced persons to US in addition to those admissible under this year’s quotas.³ Precise character of these recommendations has not yet been determined. In this connection refer President’s State of Union address of Jan 6⁴ relating to international relief and displaced persons. Our inclination to recommend admission of displaced persons in addition those admissible under existing legislation is not due to any “lobby” but to feeling that this Govt on humanitarian grounds should take its share of displaced persons.

Byrnes

1. Telegram 207 not printed; paragraph 3 read: “Goldmann mentioned that $300 million, contribution by U.S. Government partly for voluntary transfer of Arabs was a virtual certainty. He said also that a powerful non-sectarian committee was lobbying strongly for the use of accumulated but not used immigration quotas for DP’s of all faiths and that there was a possibility that this would go through in relatively near future. Can Department confirm his statements in this connection?” (867N.01/1–1047)
2. For text, see telegram 6970, July 24, from London, Foreign Relations, 1946, vol. vii, p. 652.
3. In telegram 220, January 14, 7 p. m., to London, the Department notified Mr. Winant that “Recommendation to admit 50,000 refugees was considered during 1946 but was never presented to Congress since Grady–Morrison plan as a whole was not acceptable to this Govt” (867N.01/1–1347)
4. For text, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Harry S. Truman, January 1 to December 31, 1947 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1963), p. 1.