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

867N.01/11–2548: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Embassy in the United Kingdom

secret   us urgent
niact

Washington, November 25, 1948—1 p. m.

4429. Following is text message for Lovett left by Hoyer Millar yesterday under FonOff instructions (see Deptel 4422 Nov 24 to London, London’s 4995 Nov 24 and Delga 911 Nov 24¹):

“Minister should see Mr. Lovett again today and point out it by no means too late for further efforts to bridge gap between US and UK over Bernadotte proposals. A number of amendments and counter-amendments will be under active discussion in Paris during the next few days, and we in FonOff are constantly making fresh suggestions to the UK Delegation, as you will see from the most recent telegrams. There might even be a drafting subcommittee in Paris to try and reconcile conflicting suggestions.

“Minister should therefore again urge that instructions should be sent to Dr. Jessup, authorizing him to go as far as he possibly can to meet the UK views. Even if the USG maintain their view that they cannot support the whole Brit resolution, could they not even at this stage agree to counter-amendments which would depart less widely from their previous attitude and diminish the most regrettable public divergence between the two Govts?”

Please inform FonOff we are equally anxious there should be no public divergence between two countries and will be glad study proposed Brit counter-amendments with view to seeing extent to which they can be accepted within limits present GADel instructions.

GADel should keep Dept promptly informed of such amendments with its recommendations concerning them.²

Marshall

1. Delga 911 not printed.
2. This telegram was repeated to Paris as Gadel 581. The United States Delegation, on November 25, transmitted a revised version of the British draft resolution (Delga 925, 501.BB Palestine/11–2548); for text, see GA, 3rd sess., Pt. I, First Committee, Annexes, 1948, p. 58. The Delegation noted, later the same day, that the revised draft incorporated some but not all the United States amendments of the original draft (Delga 939, 501.BB Summaries/11–2548). For the statement by the British Representative explaining the revisions, see GA, 3rd sess., Pt. I., First Committee, Summary Records, 1948, p. 759.