Office of the Historian

460. Telegram From the Consulate General at Geneva to the Department of State1

Geneva, July 14, 1956—5 p.m.

35. Eyes only for the Secretary from Gowen. Mytel 342 and urtel 39.3 Your message delivered to Hammarskjold in person by me today six pm Geneva time.

After reading it he said “I am extremely grateful to Secretary Dulles for this message. It is extremely helpful to me.

I shall keep it buried in my heart. I am immensely grateful to Secretary Dulles also for saying that this matter will not be made public until some time after my coming visit to Jerusalem and Cairo. This time I shall have to be much tougher than I was before. Both sides are extremely difficult to handle but Ben Gurion is absolutely explosive. The psychological factors involved are so very complex. The situation remains very serious. But somehow I still hope matters may improve. Please tell Secretary Dulles how deeply grateful I am to him for this message and that it is of vast help to me.”4

Gowen
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 684A.86/7–1456. Top Secret; Niact; Limit Distribution; No Distribution Outside Department. Received at 3:15 p.m. The source text bears a notation that Secretary Dulles saw this telegram.↩
  2. Not printed. (Ibid.)↩
  3. Document 456.↩
  4. Secretary Dulles showed this message to President Eisenhower on July 16. (Memorandum of conversation by Dulles; Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, Meetings with the President)↩