867N.01/11–2847: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Acting Secretary of State
us urgent
Martel 12. To Lovett from Marshall. Bevin handed to me the following summary of the British plan of withdrawal from Palestine.
“Military withdrawal—a series of clear-cut backward moves northwards from the Egyptian frontier phased as follows: Phase one: Gaza civil district by 29 February. Phase two: Jerusalem, Lydda and part of Samaria by 31 May. Phase three: Remainder of Samaria and Galilee by 30 June. Phase four: The remaining enclave round Haifa by 31 July.
The evacuation of stores through Haifa and by land to Egypt will start on December 1. It is estimated that, even under the most favourable conditions, we shall lose nearly 150,000 tons of useful stores.
Withdrawal of civil administration—the civil administration and the mandate will be maintained over the whole of Palestine until May 15, 1948, except that in certain circumstances the civil administration, or some parts of it, may be obliged to withdraw at an earlier date from the Gaza civil district.
If the United Nations vote in favour of partition, the arrival of a United Nations commission for the purpose of carrying out this decision [Page 1290] in Palestine is bound to have a disturbing effect on the Arab population. If the commission arrived before we were ready to hand over to it, this would make it impossible to carry out our plan. We could not maintain the mandate and civil administration for a longer period than 15 days after the arrival of the commission in Palestine. The British representative in New York is accordingly being instructed, in the event of the Assembly voting for partition, to discuss with the United Nations commission a mutually convenient date for the commission’s arrival, which, to fit in with the British plans, must be not before May 1. It would be most helpful if the United States representative could be instructed to use his influence to ensure that the commission were ready to come to an arrangement with us on these lines.”1
- The Department repeated this message to New York in telegram 578, November 28. The following day, in telegram 581, to New York, Mr. Lovett authorized Ambassador Johnson “to inform UK Representative that Department agrees to proposal set forth in Bevin’s memorandum quoted in Martel 12.” (501.BB Palestine/11–2947) According to telegram 1272, December 1, from New York, this information was transmitted to Sir Alexander Cadogan the same day (501.BB Palestine/12–147).↩