501.BB Palestine/11–2947: Telegram
The Chargé in Syria (Memminger) to the Secretary of State
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390. President sent for me this morning to ask that eleventh-hour appeal be made for Arab rights (reLegtel 389, November 291). In hour’s conversation Quwatly stressed (1) injustice in resting Arabs otherwise promising future on votes of small remote states whose UN delegates were subjected to bribes and threats; (2) danger to US in opening Near Eastern door to Russia; (3) virtual certainty that partition would be followed by years of disruptive violence and bloodshed with possibilities of fighting among Arabs themselves; (4) Balfour promise to Jews of national home in Palestine, which they now had, in no way justified Jewish state advocated by US; (5) while US had but one GA vote American influence was so great that Zionists would have no chance without US support.
- Not printed; it gave the text of a message from President Kuwatly to President Truman in which the United States Government was requested to take a stand on the side of the Arabs (501.BB Palestine/11–2947). On December 2, the Imam Yahya, King of the Yemen, cabled a plea to President Truman for renunciation of partition (867N.01/12–247). No evidence has been found in Department of State files that a reply was made to telegrams 389 or 390 from Damascus.↩