Memorandum from George Wadsworth to Ambassador Herschel Johnson

CIED Capn to admired Lealmy. US/A/371 September 19, 1947 UNITED STATES MISSION ani TO THE UNITED NATIONS wish MORANDUM September 18, 1947 TO: Ambassador Herschel Johnson FROM: Mr. George Wadsworth VS minister to Irag- SUBJECT: Initial Arab Reaction to Statement Regarding Palestine Made in the Secretary's September 17 Address to the General Assembly (1) Following delivery of the address, I talked briefly with members of all five of the Arab Delegations. Their comments were unanimously to the effect that the Secretary's words could be in- terpreted only as a declaration of all-out support for the UNSCOP "majority report" or, otherwise put, a forthright commitment to wield American effort and influence to bring about a pro-Zionist settlement of the problem, i.e., Partition (or, better, "liutilation") of Palestine, the setting up of a Jewish State, and "opening the doors" to all Jews wanting to enter. (2) Thereafter I lunched with members of the Syrian and Lebanese Delegations. Discussion was along the same lines. I took notes of its high-spots and, at the end of lunch, read them aloud. Confirmation of their accuracy was readily given. Here they are: Whatever the window dressing given in General Harshall's first two paragraphs, we all understand from his third para- graph that the United States will support establishment of a Jewish State. To give "great weight" to the majority report can only mean that United States policy is, today and henceforth in UNO discussions, to give it fullest United States Government support. Until today United States policy has seemed largely neutral, except for occasional White House statements support- ing large-scale Zionist immigration; today it has been enunciated in clearly pro-Zionist form. While General Marshall spoke of "detailed consideration of the report" by UNO, we cannot believe he will two weeks hence say anything contrary to the basic commitment of his declaration today. On the subject of the Secretary-General's proposal that the Palestine problem should be handled by a special ad hoc committee of the General Assembly, the Arab view was: (a) That the suggestion, if not an outright Jewish machination, would, if followed, play into Jewish hands; (b) That such a departure from normal procedure at once gives rise to natural suspicion as to motive; and DECLASSIFIED SURIOTED 3554 Authority E.O. 10501