867N.01/6–2848
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Lovett)1
| Participants: | Mr. James Grover McDonald, U.S. Special Representative to Israel |
| Mr. Lovett—U | |
| Mr. Satterthwaiter—NEA | |
| Mr. Mattison—NEA | |
| Mr. McClintock—UNA |
Mr. McDonald called by appointment at 3 p. m., June 25. He had seen the President earlier in the day and had had a general conversation in which the President stressed his desire to have his own independent means of communication and of information to and from the State of Israel. The President had not indicated when he thought Mr. McDonald should proceed to his post. It was agreed that the Foreign [Page 1152] Service personnel for Tel Aviv should precede Mr. McDonald and establish the Mission in working order before he, himself, went to Israel.
[Here follows a discussion of Mr. McDonald’s travel orders and of his salary and allowances.]
There was a general discussion of the background of the Palestine question, during which Mr. McDonald emphatically indicated his “curbstone opinion” that the Department’s policy, as enunciated by Ambassador Austin on February 24, was wrong.
[Here follow personal observations by Mr. McDonald concerning Ambassadors Wadsworth and Tuck.]
I remarked that we were fortunate in having so able and distinguished an American as Ambassador Stanton Griffis as our next Ambassador in Cairo. I said it was a relief to have a man in such a post who was not either pro-Arab or pro-Zion or pro-anything, but just plain pro-American. Mr. McDonald seemed to be not unresponsive to this observation, since he reverted to it and said he wondered how my Foreign Service advisers would take such a crack. My Foreign Service advisers said that they knew perfectly what I had in mind.
- Drafted by Mr. McClintock.↩