Memorandum of Telephone Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson and Matthew Connelly

DECLASSIFIED 315 E. O. 11652, Sec. 3(E) and S(D) or (E) Dept. of State letter, 12.23.75 667 Be NLT- HC 9 NARS Date 4.2876 CONFIDENTIAL December 6, 1949 TIMED N "NATIONAL AND MEMORANDUM OF TELEPHONE CONVERSATION Participants: Mr. Matt Connelly Mr. Acheson Subject: Voting in the UN on Jerusalem The Secretary called Mr. Connelly at Key West this afternoon to report on the situation which would take place this afternoon in the United Nations on Jerusalem. He was doing this not to bother the President or to get any decision from him, but to explain what might seem a course by the United States delegation contrary to the President's clear instructions. The Secretary said that he did not think that the proposed course was contrary to the instructions but thought that perhaps early press reports might look as though it were. The Secretary said that his clear basic instructions from the President on this question of Jerusalem were that the United States should stick with the Palestine Conciliation Report unless and until something better comes along. If an agreement could be worked out between the Jews, some of the Arabs, and some of the Christian countries, the United States would be for that, but for the present, it is clear that we should not abandon the Committee Report in which we participated. However, a subcommittee had been created which had made a report in the Committe? of the whole. In this report, some of the South American countries and some of the Arab countries not involved directly, want to go back to the idea of a separate state for Jerusalem. The Secretary said that th it had not been possible last year and it would not be possible now since neither the Jews nor Transjordan would accept it. However, the proposal has a majority of two. The Secretary said that we would vote against this. CONFIDENTIAL