501.BB Palestine/6–348: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the United States Representative at the United Nations (Austin)
niact
357. Careful consideration has been given to request of Syrian President of SC for our support of his proposal that supervisors of UN Mediator in Palestine include representatives of Arab and Jewish sides as well as representatives of the three principal religions in Palestine.
You should tell Faris El Khouri that, although we are sympathetic to the motives which prompted his suggestion, we do not feel it would be wise to include in Bernadotte’s staff of military and other observers the representatives of the parties at interest. The essence of the Mediator’s task and that of the Truce Commission is to be impartial and to carry out the terms of the SC resolution of May 29 without fear or favor to either party.
You may tell Faris Bey, however, that we should have no objection if Count Bernadotte were assisted in his work by liaison officers representing the Jews on one hand and the Arabs on the other. Precedents for such liaison officers are to be found in the case of the Balkan Commission and in the Indonesian Good Offices Committee’s work.
We do not feel that it would be useful to interject religious considerations into the Mediator’s task under resolution of May 29. Faris, himself, as a Christian, should appreciate that it would be difficult to [Page 1094] decide which Christian sect should represent the Christians of Palestine and he should also be able to appreciate embarrassment which might be caused if representative of the Moslems of Palestine were their titular leader, the Grand Mufti.
As for your own suggestion that our representatives from the three Services should be headed by officers of Flag rank, we are inclined to doubt whether in fact this would achieve the useful purpose you envisage. On the contrary we feel that presence of high-ranking officers might serve to detract from preeminent position of the Mediator who is making an excellent beginning and who we feel is fully capable of exerting all the prestige that is needed in this situation. Our concept of the role of military observers is that they should be a group of fairly young hard-working officers of rank not higher than Army colonel or Navy captain, who would thus be clearly subordinate to UN Mediator and who would be able to rough it in the field.
With respect to your suggestion that representatives be named to Truce Commission of rank and caliber of Ambassador, we feel that this would be injurious to and a reflection on work of present truce commissioners, the Consuls General in Jerusalem. These men, with great devotion and at grave personal risk, have done their utmost to carry out SC terms of reference and their failure to secure a truce was less due to their own personal qualifications than to intransigence of the parties with whom they dealt. Accordingly we are not disposed to suggest that persons of Ambassadorial position now be assigned to Truce Commission. Commission should continue on working level to assist and advise Count Bernadotte but we shall look principally to UN Mediator for top-level decisions on the spot.
Ambassador Austin is authorized to state at SC meeting this morning that this govt as member of Truce Commission will do its utmost to fulfill terms imposed on it by SC resolution of May 29. We are also prepared, if UN Mediator so requests, to furnish him military, naval, and air observers to implement Paragraph 7 of that resolution, provided that other nations are also called upon by Mediator for similar service. You should state that in our opinion most logical formula for fixing which nations should contribute these observers would be to follow precedent established for Balkan and Indonesian cases and to look to governments members of Truce Commission for this service. However, you should make it clear that this is a suggestion and that we will defer to wishes of Count Bernadotte. You may also in your judgment support suggestion as coming from Faris El Khouri that liaison officers of Jewish and Arab parties might do useful work attached to Bernadotte’s staff.
For your information President and Defense Secretary Forrestal have indicated their approval of this government contributing its fair [Page 1095] share of military observers if other members of Truce Commission do likewise. Repeated Cairo as 706 for immediate information of Count Bernadotte. Repeated Jerusalem as 528, Haifa as 101, for information of Bernadotte if he has not first been approached by Cairo. Repeated for information to London as 2054, Paris as 1925, Brussels as 842, Beirut as 293, Jidda as 215, Baghdad as 184.