501.BB Palestine/12–2348
The Acting Secretary of State to the Secretary of Defense (Forrestal)
Dear Jim: Please do not regard this as a formal communication. I thought I would send you this private word forecasting what I think may develop in Palestine, particularly with reference to the military observers which the National Defense Establishment has been kind, enough to furnish in relation to the Security Council truce in that country.
As you know, the General Assembly on December 11, 1948 adopted a resolution on Palestine which, among other things, provided that the office of the United Nations Mediator could be terminated at the request of the Security Council, the new Palestine Conciliation Commission taking over his functions. I expect that early next year the Council will in fact relieve the Mediator of further responsibility for supervising the truce and of attempting to find a solution of the Palestine problem. In this case it would be natural to suppose that the military observers who are servants of the Mediator would return home. [Page 1687] However, the Palestine Conciliation Commission, made up of Representatives of France, Turkey, and the United States, will certainly not wish to relinquish the already functioning machinery which the Mediator has established and will probably have need of some of the military observers to assist it in its endeavors to negotiate a permanent armistice.
I should think, accordingly, that in our planning for the future we should expect to receive a call for continued service by United States military observers, although possibly not in the present numbers since a smaller contingent could, under improved conditions, fill the bill. It would seem reasonable to suppose that the Belgian Government, if discharged from its duties as a Member of the Truce Commission, or even on termination of the Office of the Mediator, would expect to withdraw its present officer personnel. However, the gap left by Belgium could be filled by Turkey.
These predictions are, of course, subject to changing developments and I would not wish you to regard them as hard and fast. However, I do think it would be helpful if General Riley were informed that his staff should not be broken up, nor should officers be given their walking papers, until the situation has become more clear, which I expect will be early in January.
Sincerely yours,