867N.01/10–3147
The British Embassy to the Department of State
Memorandum
It appears probable that as many as 17,000 Jewish illegal immigrants may reach Palestine waters from the Black Sea in the near future, thus threatening to fill the Cyprus camps to capacity. It is therefore most important that none of the 28,000 displaced Jews now in Italy should be allowed to embark for Palestine within the next few months. The success of the representations which His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom are making to the Italian Government on this subject will be considerably influenced by the extent to which the movement of Jews from Austria into Italy can be checked. The British representative at Vienna has been instructed to discuss this matter with his French and United States colleagues. His Majesty’s Ambassador at Paris is also making representations to the French Government.
2. So far as the authorities in the French zone of Austria are concerned, the essential points are, that they should (a) prevent Jews from crossing the Italian frontier from their zone and take back those who do, and (b) tighten control of the frontier between the United States and French zones.
[Page 1228]3. Recent indications point to a tightening up of French control of illegal Jewish movement through their zone. However, while the French authorities appear to be disposed to help, their ability to deal adequately with this movement will, to a considerable extent, depend upon the readiness of the authorities in the United States zone to cooperate, since the French authorities are reluctant to prevent egress from their zone or to take back Jews crossing into Italy so long as the United States authorities take no steps to control movement from their zone into the French zone.
4. The largest concentration of Jews in Austria is in the United States zone. It is understood that the policy of the United States zonal authorities has hitherto been neither to aid nor to hinder the movement of Jews and that they are unlikely to feel able to alter this policy without instructions from Washington.
5. His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom accordingly request that the authorities in the United States zone may be moved to prevent Jews from crossing into the French zone and to take back those who do.
6. His Majesty’s Government are also anxious that action should be taken to prevent the misuse by the American Joint Distribution Committee and similar organisations of ex-United States Army vehicles and equipment. The following is a typical instance of such misuse. At the end of May five hundred Jews arrived at the boundary between the United States and French zones led by an A.J.D.C. jeep containing a man in United States Army uniform who threatened the Austrian gendarme with a tommy-gun when the latter attempted to halt the convoy. It is suggested that if organisations such as the American Joint Distribution Committee were compelled to paint their ex-United States Army vehicles a different colour and to dye their ex-United States Army uniforms, this equipment could no longer be used to disguise the true nature of such convoys and thus prevent Jewish organisations from deriving indirect aid from a misuse of ex-United States Army equipment.