Foreign Relations of the United States, 1949, The Near East, South Asia, and Africa, Volume VI

501.MA Palestine/1–1449

The Acting Secretary of State to the President

Washington, January 14, 1949.

The President: There is enclosed for your consideration and for transmission to the Congress, if you approve, a joint resolution¹ to authorize an appropriation for a special contribution by the United States to the United Nations for the relief of Palestine refugees.

The purpose of this legislation is to give effect to a resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations of November 19, 1948,² a copy of which is enclosed. The action of the General Assembly was based primarily upon the report of the Acting United Nations Media tor for Palestine of October 18, 1948,³ which described the situation of the 500,000 Palestinian refugees as extremely critical and urged immediate assistance for them to avert a great human catastrophe. The General Assembly, taking this situation into account, declared in its resolution, “that the alleviation of conditions of starvation and distress among the Palestine refugees is one of the minimum conditions for the success of the effort of the United Nations to bring peace to that land”. The resolution further states that a sum of approximately $29,500,000 will be required to provide relief for 500,000 refugees for a period of nine months from December 1, 1948, to August 31, 1949, and that an additional amount of approximately $2,500,000 will be required for administrative and local operational expenses. To finance these requirements, the resolution “urges all States Members of the United Nations to make as soon as possible voluntary contributions in kind or in funds sufficient to insure that the amount of supplies and funds required” is obtained.

To provide immediate assistance pending the receipt of contributions, the General Assembly authorized the Secretary-General to advance $5,000,000 from the United Nations Working Capital Fund, this advance to be repaid from the voluntary contributions of governments.

The proposed legislation provides for a special contribution of $16,000,000 to the United Nations for the refugee relief program. This amount is deemed to be a fair share for the United States to contribute in order to support the efforts of the United Nations in restoring peace in Palestine and in view of the deep interest of the United States in restoring conditions of stability in that area. To date, fifteen countries have indicated that they will make contributions pursuant to the General Assembly resolution. Among these, the United Kingdom has announced a contribution of one million pounds sterling (approximately $4,000,000) and France, a contribution of 500,000,000 French francs (approximately $1,600,000).

The program will be administered by Mr. Stanton Griffis who is taking leave from his post as United States Ambassador to Egypt to serve as Director of United Nations Relief for Palestine Refugees. With a view to utilizing personnel and organizations experienced in disaster relief, arrangements are being made with the International Committee of the Red Cross, the League of Red Cross Societies, and the American Friends Service Committee to handle the distribution of supplies in the field as agents of the United Nations.

The provision for an advance of $8,000,000 from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation is designed to make a part of the United States contribution immediately available. Without this extraordinary pro vision, the normal delays in the appropriation process would make it impossible to meet the heaviest requirements of the relief program during the winter months.

Section 3 of the draft legislation is for the purpose of enabling the United Nations to procure material, supplies or services for the purposes of the resolution through the facilities of the United States Government agencies and to simplify the procedures for such procurement.

In view of the urgency of extending relief to these unfortunate peoples, and of the importance of the United States contribution to the United Nations program, I sincerely hope that the proposed legislation may be presented to the Congress for its consideration at the earliest opportunity.⁴

Robert A. Lovett

1. For text, see Department of State Bulletin, February 6, 1949, p. 204.
2. For information on this resolution, see circular telegram of November 19, 1948, Foreign Relations, 1948, vol. v, Part 2, p. 1614.
3. The text of this report is printed in United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, Third Session, Supplement No. 11A. The report is cited in an American draft resolution sent to the Department from Paris on October 20, 1948, in Delga 411, Foreign Relations, 1948, vol. v, Part 2, p. 1497.
4. President Truman transmitted Mr. Lovett’s letter to the Congress for its “favorable consideration” on January 29; the text of the President’s message is printed in Department of State Bulletin, February 6, 1949, p. 202.