Office of the Historian

501.BB Palestine/10–2148: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Acting Secretary of State

top secret   us urgent
niact
Paris, October 21, 1948—5 p. m.

Delga 432. Eyes alone for Lovett from Marshall. It may become necessary at any time, in order to comply with President’s directive on postponing Palestine with which I am in full accord, to support placing Greece ahead of Palestine in Committee One.1 If matter arises, a bitter debate will be provoked during which, if we are entirely silent, slurs and insinuations will be heaped upon us to the serious injury [Page 1503] to our prestige and our influence in this session of the Assembly. Mrs. Roosevelt, Austin and I believe that the best way to handle it would be to make the short frank statement given below. If you agree, please obtain White House clearance immediately. Question will not arise today but we should have your reply today if possible. Although Dulles was not asked to concur, he stated to Rusk some such statement would be a very good thing here and, if decided upon, he would promptly inform Dewey.

Text of statement follows:

“Mr. Chairman: My delegation believes that Committee One should pass next to the consideration of the Greek case. This would mean further postponement of our consideration of Palestine.

“Apart from the urgency of the Greek case, we believe that we should postpone our discussion of Palestine for two reasons:

  • “(a). A peaceful adjustment of the situation in Palestine can be more wisely solved if the security measures adopted by the SC on October 19 are demonstrated to be effective.
  • “(b). We do not wish to have the GA’s consideration of Palestine exposed to partisan political pressure from outside the UN.

“Until the vigorous and democratic processes of election now going on in the US are over, consideration of Palestine in the UN might be exposed to such pressure. It has been said that our interest in postponement results from partisan politics: the exact opposite is the case. My delegation desires to take partisan politics, or even the appearance of partisan politics, out of our further debate on this subject”.

Marshall
  1. The Cuban Representative, on October 20, had proposed to the First Committee that it modify the order in which items on the agenda were to be examined. The effect of the proposal was to defer consideration of the Palestine question. The Committee, after sharp discussion, adopted the Cuban measure by 34 votes to 11, with 10 abstentions (GA, 3rd sess. Pt. I, First Committee, Summary Records, 1948, pp. 208–217).↩