867N.01/1–849
Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by the Director of the Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs (Satterthwaite)
Subject: Attack on RAF Planes by IAF Planes
| Participants: | Julius Holmes, Chargé d’Affaires, London |
| J. C. Satterthwaite, NEA |
Mr. Holmes telephoned at 10:30 this morning to say that the news about the shooting down by the Israeli Air Force of five Royal Air Force planes was true and that Ambassador Franks had been instructed to see Mr. Lovett this morning to give him the facts. Mr. Holmes was sent for by Mr. Bevin who, however, was in a meeting by the time Mr. Holmes arrived at the Foreign Office and these facts were therefore given him by Michael Wright.1
[Page 628]To summarize the information given Mr. Holmes, the RAF planes were attacked over Egyptian territory, the attack was unprovoked, and the RAF planes were under orders not to cross the Palestinian frontier and to avoid combat. A total of five planes were shot down, four out of the first reconnaissance flight and one out of the second.
Much of the information which the British now have is based on a report from the leader of the first reconnaissance flight, who bailed out over Egyptian territory. Another important point that Mr. Holmes made was that the British assured him that the reconnaissance planes did not carry bombs and did not engage in any offensive action.
Mr. Holmes said that the British are on the point of issuing a rather lengthy press communiqué giving full details of the loss of these planes. The final paragraph reads as follows: “In view of these unprovoked attacks, our aircraft have now been instructed to regard as hostile any Jewish aircraft encountered over Egyptian territory.”
In reply to Mr. Holmes’ query whether the British expected to continue the reconnaissance flights, he was told that the commander of the Royal Air Force has been given discretion in this respect.
Mr. Holmes said that he had been shown a map based on both tactical and photographic reconnaissance which clearly shows a line of Jewish strong points well inside Egyptian territory.
He said also that all this information has been telegraphed to Sir Terence Shone2 with a request that he pass it on immediately to the Acting UN Conciliator. Furthermore, Mr. Marriott, the British Consul General in Haifa, has been instructed to go to Tel Aviv at once and give this information to the PGI.
Mr. Wright also told Mr. Holmes that Mr. Bevin views this situation in the most serious light, and considers the situation extremely grave. Mr. Holmes said the British are jittery and worked up about this development. He hoped that he would be successful in calming them down somewhat. Mr. Bevin asked Mr. Wright also to tell Mr. Holmes that the Chiefs of Staff and the Minister of Defense had been consulted concerning the orders that were issued and that they had been approved by Mr. Attlee.3
Mr. Holmes said that he was calling at once in order that we should have this information and know that it was being made public.
Note: The sense of the foregoing was telephoned to Mr. Clark Clifford at the White House at 11:05 a. m. I also told him that Mr. Lovett would appreciate it if he would pass this information on to the President as soon as possible, since the situation might become very serious.