12. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in Egypt1
1196. Reurtel 1040.2 Please urgently deliver following confidential message to Fawzi personally:
“As the Government of Egypt well knows, the President and the Secretary of State have been giving careful study to ways and means of lessening the tensions that have unfortunately existed in the Middle East, and they feel that some constructive progress has been made. The Secretary is much disturbed lest the execution just now of the prisoners recently convicted might seriously affect these efforts. The Secretary therefore has asked me to convey informally to you his hope that the Government of Egypt might find it possible commute the sentences of the two condemned.
This hope is expressed without any thought of questioning the procedure or verdict of the court or of intervening in the internal affairs of Egypt. It is intended solely to recall an international aspect [Page 34] of the matter which the Secretary is sure is a matter of concern to you as well as to him.”3
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 784A.5274/1–2755. Confidential; Niact; Limited Distribution. Drafted by Jernegan; cleared by Murphy and Hoover; approved by Jernegan, who signed for Dulles.↩
- Dated January 27, not printed. (Ibid.)↩
- Telegram 1052 from Cairo, January 28, reported that Jones delivered the message as instructed. It quoted Fawzi as saying that he would “personally, informally, and urgently” put the Secretary’s message before the head of state and members of the Egyptian Government but that he did not like “to arouse any unwarranted hopes”. (Ibid., 784A.5274/1–2855) Telegram 1070 from Cairo, January 31, reported that the executions had taken place that morning. (Ibid., 784A.5274/1–3155)↩