Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948, The Near East, South Asia, and Africa, Volume V, Part 2

501.BB Palestine/2–1048

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Director of the Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs (Henderson)¹

secret

[Washington,] February 10, 1948.

Participants:	Mr. Isa Nakhleh, Representative of the Arab Higher Committee for Palestine
	Mr. Henderson—NEA
	Mr. Wilkins—NE

Mr. Nakhleh called on me this afternoon for the purpose of presenting a copy of the Arab Higher Committee’s letter of February 6² to the Secretary General of the United Nations and for the purpose of ascertaining the attitude of the United States Government with regard to United Nations handling of the Palestine question.

Mr. Nakhleh said that he had two principal questions:

1) Did the United States Government intend to bring pressure on the members of the Security Council to cause them to vote for the sending of forces to Palestine to implement the General Assembly resolution of November 29, 1947?

2) Will the United States Government oppose a resolution of the Security Council calling for some form of reconsideration of the Palestine question?

In reply I told Mr. Nakhleh that:

1) The United States Government had no intention of bringing undue pressure on the members of the Security Council with regard to the dispatch of international forces to Palestine in order to implement the General Assembly resolution of November 29, 1947, and in fact I did not consider that the United States Government had brought undue pressure in the past on members of the United Nations. I said that, so far as I was aware, no decision had been reached by the United States Government with regard to the question of the necessity for any type of force to carry out the General Assembly’s resolution of November 29, 1947.

2) I could not answer this question since I did not know precisely what the United States Government would do. So far as I knew this question had not been considered and, therefore, it was probable that no decision had been made with regard to it.

I told Mr. Nakhleh I had read the Arab Higher Committee’s letter of February 6 to the Secretary General of the United Nations and that I considered it most unfortunate for the Arab Higher Committee to make such statements as the following:

“It is an established fact that strong pressure was put on the Philippine Government by the United States Government …”

I said that the Arab Higher Committee in making loose and unsupported charges was weakening its position in the eyes of world opinion. I pointed out that, so far as I was aware, no member of the executive branch of the United States Government had brought improper pressure to bear on the Philippine Government. Mr. Nakhleh pointed out in reply, that the Philippine delegation had switched its position, as had several other delegations, but conceded that he had no evidence of pressure by the United States Government itself.

L[oy] W. H[enderson]

1. Drafted by Fraser Wilkins of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs.
2. See footnote 3, p. 605.