867N.01/12–3049: Telegram
President Truman to King Abdullah Ibn el Hussein of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan1
Your Majesty: I have received the letter2 which Your Majesty was good enough to send me through His Excellency Fawzi Pasha el Mulki. I very much appreciate this expression of Your Majesty’s views on a problem with which the United States Government has so long been concerned.
Your Majesty may be sure that this Government will continue to give the closest attention to the Palestine question, in the constant hope that an equitable settlement may be achieved.
It is my belief that the cause of peace in the Near East would be greatly furthered if the states most directly concerned in the Palestine dispute should find it possible to agree among themselves upon the bask elements for a just settlement.
I send to Your Majesty the warm expression of my personal esteem and my best and most cordial wishes for the continued prosperity of Your Majesty and of the Hashemite Kingdom of the Jordan in the forthcoming year.
- Sent to Amman in telegram 216, which instructed that the message be transmitted to the King. The message was drafted in the Department of State and sent to Presisdent Truman by Secretary Acheson, with his memorandum of December 29. The memorandum stated, in part, that “I believe that it is desirable to avoid any commitment in replying to King Abdullah, but that in the interests of a Palestine settlement it would be helpful to give indirect encouragement to the King to continue the secret talks now going on between Jordan and Israel. The attached reply has been drafted with these points in mind.” President Truman, in a marginal notation on December 30, approved the proposed reply (867N.01/12–3049).↩
- Dated November 5; see editorial note, p. 1470.↩