Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 1 page
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
16620246
label
Hurley, Patrick J.
core
doc
dtoType
document
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
16620246
sourceUrl
contentType
document
title
Hurley, Patrick J.
citationUrl
collections
President's Secretary's File (Franklin D. Roosevelt Administration)
Subject Files
imageCount
1
hasImages
yes
source
import
hasTranscription
no
Source extras
naId
16620246
levelOfDescription
fileUnit
recordType
description
ocrSource
nara-archive
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
document
mediaId
d8fb25aba6b067b1
ocrText
PSF PATRICK J. HURLEY (Maj-Gen)
Subject File
Gen.
PSF: Hurley
Box
153 I
3-43
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
-
THE SECRETARY
June 5, 1943 gout file
MEMORANDUM FOR MISS TULLY
In accord with our telephone
conversation of yesterday, I re-
turn herewith the messages from
General Hurley.
C.W.G.
SECRET PSF.Hurley
HEADQUARTERS
UNITED STATES ARMY FORCES
IN THE MIDDLE EAST
CAIRO, EGYPT,
May 5, 1943.
SECRET AND CONFIDENTIAL
Honorable Franklin D. Roosevelt,
President of the United States,
REGRADED
The White House,
Washington, D. C.
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Mr. President:
111N 2 1972
PART I
In French Morocco, Egypt, Palestine, the Lebanon, Syria,
Iraq and Iran, I have conferred with political, military, and religious
leaders and with many individual citizens. I have visited all the
Arab Nations except Saudi Arabia and Transjordania which I intend to
visit soon.
The situation in the non-Arab State of Iran will be reported
to you after I have had an opportunity to discuss it further with the
Right Honorable Richard D. Casey, British Minister of State in Cairo.
In all of the areas visited, the local leaders have assumed
that the war will be won by the United Nations. Consequently their
discussions point toward the conditions of peace rather than the
actions necessary to assure victory.
In the Middle East, American prestige is higher than that
of any other nation. This is due primarily to the fact that America
is believed to have no imperialistic designs.
American missionaries, especially the Presbyterians, have
added materially to American prestige by establishing schools and
SECRET
SECRET - 2 -
hospitals. These institutions have had over a long period of years
the services of men and women who exemplified the ideals of Americanism.
The benevolence of the American Lend-Lease Act is a significant
factor in procuring good will for America.
Moslems, Jews, Christians--British, French and Arabs--have
all discussed with me in detail: (1) the approaches to the actual
creation of & structure of world-wide unity; (2) the form of the organ-
ization to be adopted initially by the United Nations; (3) the nec-
essity for assistance and a form of trusteeship by the United Nations
for dependent or backward peoples in undeveloped areas; and (4) regul-
ations for production, transportation, trade, distribution and utilization
of natural resources.
In Iraq and Iran there were prolonged discussions concerning
a fair international petroleum policy. I am giving this problem
further attention. Invariably the leaders in oil producing nations
complain that their own people derive too little benefit from these
resources while foreign exploiters take excessive profits.
In varying degrees our own allies are still devoted to the
principles of imperialism, colonial exploitation or conquest. Man-
ifestations of this attitude are found with the French in Syria and the
Lebanon, the Russians in northern Iran, the British in southern Iran
and other areas, and the Jews in Palestine and Transjordania. While
it is true that conditions of war require continuance at this time
of certain policies of conquest and imperialism, these must eventually
be in complete conflict with the principles of the Atlantic Charter and
the four freedoms. Native officials and individuals in many of the
places visited have defined this fundamental conflict. The high principles
of the Atlantic Charter and the practices of exploitation and imperialism
SECRET
SECRET
- 3 -
cannot be reconciled.
Intelligent native leaders with whom I have conversed are
aware of the fact that the United States Government is based on the
principle that governments must derive their just powers from the consent
of the governed. They are familiar with our expressed conviction that no
man is good enough to rule another man without the other's consent.
They conclude this line of argument by saying that if the
United States is not to change its own fundamental principles and if it
is to participate in & world-wide union for trusteeship for dependent
peoples in undeveloped areas, a new system must be evolved so that all
people everywhere may participate to the extent of their capacity in
their own government.
PART II
Running through all the discussions in the Middle East,
most definite emphasis is placed not on war and not on peace but on
the issue of establishing or not establishing a Jewish Political State
in Palestine.
It is nnnecessary for me to discuss for you in this report
the arguments based on Scripture, on history, on the Balfour Declaration,
on the Palestine Mandate, on the Joint Resolution of the United States
Congress, on the British White Paper, or on the speeches of leading
nationals pertaining to the Jewish National Home and a Jewish Political
State in Palestine.
The debate on the issue of 8. Jewish Political State in Palestine
in many quarters has become acrimonious. Among the Jews themselves there
is a clear division of opinion on this question.
For its part, the Zionist organization in Pulestine has indicated
its commitment to an enlarged program for (1) a sovereign Jewish State
SECRET
SECRET
- 4 -
which would embrace Palestine and probably Transjordania, (2) an
eventual transfer of the Arab population from Palestine to Iraq, and
(3) Jewish leadership for the whole Middle East in the fields of economic
development and control.
In Palestine itself there ar considerable numbers of Jews who
consider themselves primarily Europeans, and who would prefer to return
to Europe 1f security of life can be assured there. There are others
who would accept life in Palestine under advantageous conditions but
who shrink from possible violence or the hard life of pioneers. Since
the Zionist organization in Palestine exercises major control over the
means of livelihood of the refugee Jews of that country, it is difficult
to assess precisely the strength of actual or potential opposition to
the organization program. Nevertheless it is clear that such opposition
exists among the Palestine Jews themselves and that it will become more
manifest when democratic regimes are reestablished in Europe.
Jewish communities in the Middle East, outside of Palestine,
are long established and important, socially and economically. Leaders,
and I believe a majority of members of these communities, view the
Zionist program with a degree of distrust and alarm based on (1) fear
that is may imply forced migration to Palestine, (2) fear that any attempt
to implement the program would lead to persecution, and (3) religious
differences among the Jews themselves.
Among the Arabs, there is little or no anti-Jewish sentiment
as we ordinarily use the term; nor is there serious opposition to the
concept of & Jewish National Home. There are racial relationships between
the Arab and the Jew. Notwithstanding these factors, there is deepseated
Arab hostility to any immigration program intended to create a Jewish
majority in Palestine and to the establishment of 8. Jewish sovereign state.
SECRET -
SECRET
- 5 -
There is hostility also toward the Jewish claim that they are
the "chosen people" and hence entitled, even though they are a minority,
to special privileges. One leading Arab spokesman described this "chosen
people" concept as kindred to Nazi doctrine.
The basic fear of the Arab leaders seems to be that a Jewish
Political State in the Middle East, due to the influence of world Jewry
on the great powers, would become the means by which imperialism would
continue to dominate the Middle East, Such 8. condition would, of course,
obstruct the establishment of really independent arab political states
in an Arab union.
Nuri Pasha es-Said, Prime Minister of Iraq and one of the
longtime proponents of Arab Federation, has suggested 8. compromise
solution. This solution is sufficiently close to that set forth in the
British White Paper of 1939 as to entitle it to the sympathetic consider-
ation of the British Government. The Nuri proposals differ from the White
Paper principally in that they would expedite the assumption of independence
by Palestine; they would not recognize a continued British special interest
in Palestine based on strategic considerations; and they would establish
an Arab Federation embracing Palestine, Transjordania, the Lebanon, Syria,
Iraq and such other Arab states as might desire adherence. The Jewish
population in Palestine, with immigration limited by law so as to prevent
such immigration from creating a Jewish majority, thus assuring an Arab
majority, would have autonomous rights within the districts in which
they constituted majorities. The Lebanese Christian community would have
the same rights. These rights are to be protected by international
guarantees.
Some such solution very probably would meet with acceptance by
a majority of Moslem Arab leaders, of the leaders of Jewish communities in
SECRET
SECRET
- 6 -
the Middle East outside of Palestine, and of signigicant numbers of the
Jews within Palestine.
Throughout the Arab nations I found a well defined opinion
prevailing that the United States, and not Great Britain, is insisting
on establishing a sovereign Jewish State in Palestine.
Mr. Ben-Gurion, the Zionist leader in Palestine, discussed at
length and with unusual eloquence the Jewish claim to political control
of Palestine. Throughout his argument, Mr. Ben-Gurion assumed and asserted
that the Government of the United States is committed and obligated, repeat
obligated, to establish & Jewish Political State in Palestine.
This alleged obligation was said to derive from: (1) Scriptural
promises and historical logic, (2) the investment in Palestine of Jewish
American capital in reliance on the protection of the U.S. Government,
(3) support accorded by the U.S. Government to the establishment of the
Palestinian Mandate, and (4) support of the Zionist program implied in the
Joint Resolution of Congress of 1922.
These Zionist arguments, intended to prove that the United States
is obligated to establish a Jewish Political State in Palestine, do have
an appeal and do encourage acceptance but they are in f.ot incorrect. It
seemed wise, therefore, to point out to Mr. Ben-Gurion that none of the
evidence offered revealed any obligation of the U.S. Government or the
American people to support the present Zionist demand for création of a
Jewish majority and establishment of a (ewish Political State in Palestine.
The documents involved in (3) and (4) were produced and it was shown
clearly that the U.S. Government merely consented to the British Mandate
for Palestine and , in the joint Resolution, favored only the establishment
of a National Home for the Jews insofar as such a home would not trespass
BECRET
SECRET
- 7 -
on the rights of Christian and other non-Jewish communities in Palestine.
Speakers opposing the Zionist position emphasized to me that the
handing over of the Government of Palestine to the Jewish minority would
violate the fundamental principles of Americanism, the Atlantic Charter
and the four freedoms. They pointed out further that if it is admitted
that a minority has a perpetual right to restitution of territory taken
from it by conquest, the enforcement of that principle would destroy the
British Empire and would require the United States to make restitution
to Mexico of much of our West and Southwest.
Auni Bey Abdul Hadi, leader of the Arab Moslem majority in
Palestine, presented to me the argument in ppposition to the establish-
ment of a Jewish State there. He asserted that Washington appears to be
lending its strength to this plan of minority rule for the people of
Palestine, and to be supporting a program of Jewish mingration to Pal-
estine sufficient in extent to give the Jews an eventual majority over
the Arabs. He considers such policy unjust and certain to provoke
hostilities against the Jews not only in Palestine but in all other
Arab nations.
I asked Auni Bey the basis for his assertion. He replied
first that he was informed that the Jewish minority in the United States
and in fact in many other nations controls the most powerful means of
propaganda; that the Zionist organization has forced Washington to oppose
the Balfour concept of 8. Jewish National Home and that Washington in turn
has forced the British Government to acquiesce in the establishment of a
Jewish Political State in Palestine.
I suggested to Auni Bay that he was still speaking in general-
ities and asked him if he could state specifically the source of his
information. He replied that Sir Ronald Storrs, former High Commissioner
SECRET
SECRET
- 8 -
to Palestine, who recently revisited Palestine and other Arab States,
had told him personally that His Britannic Majesty's Government is
opposed to the establishment of a Jewish Political State in Palestine and
still adheres to the Balfour Declaration and British White Paper policy
for establishing a Jewish National Home in Palestine but that Washington
is forcing British acquiescence in the establishment of 8. Jewish Political
State. He said that many other British spokesmen had expressed the
same opinion.
The widespread circulation of this opinion was revealed to me,
but not at other times attributed to Sir Ronald Storrs, during conver-
sations in Damascus, in Beirut, in Baghdad and in Tehran--with Moslems,
Christians, Arab leaders, American missionaries, and others.
This line of propaganda is distinctly helpful to British
n
prestige with the Arabs. I am conviced, however, that the British
officials and leaders with whom I have conferred in the Middle East are
definitely opposed to the establishment of a Jewish Political State in
Palestine and are in favor of a settlement of the issue on the basis
of the British White Paper.
There is another predominating rumor, which is so widely
circulated and believed that it has assumed some of the definite at-
tributes of a fact. It purports to be 8. quotation from a private
conversation with Winston Churchill in Cairo, in which the Prime Minister
allegedly said, "I am committed to the establishment of a Jewish State in
Palestine and the President will accept nothing less." If this statement
was made, the Prime Minister unquestionable shares full responsibility
with you for whatever decision is reached.
SECRET
SECRET
- 9 -
Without attempting to assess responsibility for the Arab-
Jewish problem, even while recognizing that the Middle East has been
and is a zone of British influence, I believe the British are no
longer able by themselves to settle this and kindred problems in the
Middle East. Specifically it is my opinion that the British and the
Americans must come together and share equally in the final decision
for or against the establishment of a Jewish Political State and must
share also the responsibility for the consequences of such a decision.
I am, sir, yours respectfully.
/s/ Patrick Hurley
PATRICK HURLEY,
Brigadier General, U.S.A.
SECRET
SECRET
CCWD
14/13542
WVNT 4
13/18202
From: Cairo
To:
AGWAR
Unnumbered May 13, 1943.
This for eyes alone President Roosevelt urgent and mest
accret-from General Hurley signed Brereton. Before going to
Iran and since my return I have conferred at length with the
Rt Hon Richard D Casey British Minister of State for the Middle
East on conditions in Iran. In Iran I conferred with our
Minister, Mr Dreyfus, and members of his staff, with the
Commander of the United States Military Forces, Major General
Ronald G Connolly and members of his staff, with the British
Minister Sir R Bullard and members of his staff. I then con-
ferred with the American advisers Dr A C Millspaugh (economics)
Mr Joseph P Sheridan (food) Colonel Norman Schwartskopf
(national police) Mr Timmerman (Municipal police) Major General
Clarence S Ridley (Iranian Army) with Mr. D Stansby and other
officials of the United Kingdom Commercial Corporation and
with Mr. Erik Eriksen of the United States Commercial Corporation.
After these meetings I conferred with the Shah Mohammad Reza,
the Prime Minister, Ali Sohkili, the Minister for Foreign Affairs,
SECRET
SECRET
From: Cairo
Page 2.
To:
AGWAR
Unnumbered May 13, 1943.
Saed Mareghei, and other Iranians. The situation in Iran is
serious. The conditions and the methods employed by the
British and the Russians in the military occupation of Iran
have rendered the Iranian Government impotent. The aspirations
of the British and the Russians in Iran are in conflict. The
Iranians distrust the motives of both the British and the
Russians and believe that the future existence of Iran as an
independent nation is threatened. American prestige in Iran
is being injured by the fact that Americans are in positions
of responsibility without adequate authority. In conversations
which I had with the Shah, the Prime Minister, and the Minister
for Foreign Affairs, matters both far reaching and specific
were discussed. Chief among the subjects were (1) food, (2)
transportation, (3) inflation, (4) possibility of an Iranian
declaration of war against the Axis as a member of the United
Nations and (5) future relationships between Iran, Britain,
Russia and the United States. The Russians have occupied the
northern portion of Iran constituting roughly 1/3 of the country's
area and a majority of its population. This portion of Iran
is richest in production of food and in all natural resources
except developed oil resources. The British occupy the less
populous but larger geographical area of the south. The portion
occupied by the British extends to the Persian Gulf and contains
all of the developed oil areas of the country. For the most
SECRET
SECRET
From: Cairo
Page 3
To:
AGWAR
Unnumbered May 13, 1943
part the attitude of the Iranian officials and indeed of all
the Iranian people who are in a position to appraise conditions,
is one of intense bitterness toward Great Britain. This better-
ness toward Britain is 80 emotional that it has almost completely
wiped out the memory of 400 years of uninterrupted Britain-
Persian friendship. Toward Russia there is less bitterness
but in my opinion there is a deep fear of the eventual ob-
jectives of Russia. However Russian administration d' their zone of
occupation is more acceptable to the Iranians than that of the
British. The Iranians translate their bitterness toward the
British and to a lesser extent toward the Russians in a series
of specific charges against the policies of these two powers
in Iran. Even under the most considerate planning by the
occupation forces Iranian capacity to feed her own people would
be sevemely strained by the presence of British, Russian and
America Troops and their minimum requirements of local foods.
Iranian spokesman complain however that neither the British
nor the Russians have displayed any considerate planning. The
Iranians charge that in the south the British bought up great
quantities of foodstuffs not only for their own consumption but
for export. They charge that in the more aboundant north the
Russians have followed to some extent a like policy. The Iranians
charge that the British forced inflation upon the country by
SECRET
SECRET
From: Cairo
Page 4.
To:
AGWAR
Unnumbered May 13, 1943
insisting upon repeated government issuances of currency to
be used to pay British forces of occupation and American
supervised labor on the railroad track lines and road building
projects. High wages paid by the British and Americans have
contributed to the inflationary trend. Contributing to the
inflation also it must be added is the weakness of the Iranian
Government itself and the consequent lack of confidence in the
national currency. By reason of its disorganized conditions the
Government was unable to stabilize prices or to prevent specu-
lation and hoarding. The combination of inflated food prices
and actual food scarcity has lead to deaths by starvation. The
Iranians charge that even when starvation became widespread in
the south the British delayed taking steps to import grain. The
Iranians and the British charge also that the Russians refused
to permit shipments of foodstuffs to that portion of the country
where there was a shortage. This food crisis was intensified
the Iranians allege by the fact that the British deprived the
country of effective use of its own transport system through
commandeering or hiring at high prices great numbers of Iranian
motor trucks and by taking over full control of the Iranian State
Railroad. Additional Iranian trucks were pressed into Russian
Service in the north. Most of this transportation was of course
used for the purpose of transporting American Lend Lease materials
to Russia. But the fact remains that lack of use of its own
transportation facilities did prevent Iran from transporting food
SECRET
SECRET
From: Cairo
Page 5.
To:
AGWAR
Unnumbered May 13, 1943
and thereby was an additional cause of food shortage. Iranian
spokesmen accuse the British of deliberately bringing about food
shortages and consequent bread riots in Tehran to provide an
excuse for the British Military occupation of the city. The
British occupation of Tehran the Russians and Iranians allege
was in violation of the tripartite agreement between Iran, Russia,
and Great Britain. The Iranians make further grave accusation
that the British attempted at the time of the food crisis to
force concessions from the Iranian Government in return for
wheat. They allege that the British Minister submitted various
conditions to the Iranian Government which he specifically
stated must be accepted before the British Government would
make any concession in regard to food, bearing on this accusation
a message from the American Minister at Tehran to the Secretary
of State Washington D. C. dated February 24, 1943 and copy of
the dispatch addressed to the Foreign Office in London repeated
to Kuibyshev and Washington dated November 6, 1942 and signed
Bullard. The end of the food crisis seems to be in sight. Russia
has agreed to furnish the Iranians 25,000 tons of wheat. The
Americans and British have agreed to furnish a total of 32,500 tons
of wheat and barley part of which has been delivered. There are
prospects for a good crop if the American advisers Dr Millspaugh
(economics) and Mr Sheridan (food) are able to procure the funds
SECRET
SECRET
From: Cairo
Page 6.
To:
AGWAR
Unnumbered May 13, 1943
for the purchase of the wheat crop and the transportation to
get it to the centers of population, the most immediate cause
of Iranian unrest would be removed. At another time of crisis
the Iranians charge that typhus serum was ordered from the United
States and that it was shipped but was impounded by the British
at Cairo. The Iranians assert that if this serum had been de-
livered it would have prevented many deaths from typhus. Where-
ever the fault lies the fact is that the serum was not delivered
and many Iranians died during the subsequent epidemic. The
Iranians charge that the United Kingdom Commercial Corporation,
a British Government institution, which entered Iran for the
purpose of preclusive purchasing of war materials has forced it-
self into a position of a complete monopoly of all Iranian foreign
trade. The Iranian officials complain bitterly that after having
stripped the Iranian Government of nearly all of its actual
powers and having rendered that Government helpless in this
period of crisis. The British now openly blame the Iranian
Government for not taking strong action to procure proper trans-
portation facilities to prevent inflation, to fix prices, and to
prevent starvation of the population. There are other counts
in the indictment but I think I have given you enough to create
the impression that the British are not popular in Iran. The
SECRET
SECRET
From: Cairo
Page 7.
To:
AGWAR
Unnumbered May 13, 1943
Iranians openly charge and believe that Britain has been guilty
in Iran of conduct akin to that of the Nazis in Europe. If
the Iranians had to decide today between the British and the
Russians they would in my opinion unquestionably choose the
Russians. American troops in Iran are in a peculiar position.
In conversation with Russian Army officers and Iranian officials
they have at times referred to the United States a.8 an instrumen-
tality of Great Britain. I have learned that this assertion is
based on the allegation that American troops entered Iran on the
invitation and under the direction of the British alone. It
is alleged that neither the Iranians nor the Russians were con-
sulted in advance of the arrival of American troops. The Russians
still assert that they have not been officially apprised through-
out the intervening months of the presence or the purposes of
American Troops in Iran. This argument on the part of the Russians
seems weak in face of the fact that American Troops entered Iran
for the sole purpose of operating the state railway and military
supply lines to transport American Lend Lease materials to Russia.
The American Troops in Iran are not combat troops. They are
service troops. It does appear to be true however that the
Iranian Government was not notified of the coming of American
troops or the purpose that the troops were to serve. American
SECRET
SECRET
From: Cairo
Page 8.
To:
AGWAR
Unnumbered May 13, 1943
advisers to the Iranian Government are charged with the re-
sponsibility of guaranteeing civilian food supplies, providing
transportation, fixing prices, supervising national and municipal
police forces, supervising the reorganization of the Iranian
Army, preventing inflation, stabilizing the currency, providing
funds for the ordinary needs of government, and in general
restoring security and order to Iran. Up to the time I left
Iran no adequate authority had been given to any of the American
advisers to enable them to accomplish the tasks assigned. This
left the American ddvisers among whom there are men of the highest
character and ability in positions of responsibility without
authority. More and more the American advisers are being criticized
for not having brought order out of chaos when in fact they have
been supplied with neither the means nor the authority that would
enable them to achieve the purposes of their mission. The buck
is usually passed from the British and Russians to the Iranians
and by all three to the American advisers. The State Department
is endeavoring to correct these situations by (1) procuring an
agreement with the Iranian Government recognizing the presence
of American Troops (2) procuring from Russian officials recognition
of the presence of the units of the United States Army in their
true status and (3) procuring from the Iranian Government adequate
and proper authority for the American advisers. The ambitions
SECRET
SECRET
From: Cairo
Page 9.
To:
AGWAR
Unnumbered May 13, 1943
of Russia and Great Britain are in conflict in Iran. In my
opinion Britain and Russia aspire to control Iran after the war,
not jointly but separately. Britains control would be for
the purpose of keeping the monopoly of the oil resources which
her nationals now own and of establishing a trade monopoly.
Russia's control would serve to secure her long desired access
to a warm water port. At the peace table I believe Russia will
insist on either a corridor to the Persian Gulf or to the Indian
Ocean or as an alternative freedom of the straits from the
Black Sea to the Aegean Sea. In the light of these conflicting
ambitions it appears rather certain that if Germany were totally
defeated today and Japan were still in the field there would
be open conflict in the Middle East between the forces of the
United Nations. As if to aggravate the relations between Russia
and Britain in Iran there is a rumor being encouraged in Iran
to the effect that the British in Washington are endeavoring
to prevent further Lend Lease assistance from the United States
to Russia. It is alleged that the British contend that American
supplies are giving Russia such strength as to make Russia a
menace to the peace of the world after the capitulation of Germany.
Owing to the gravity of the situation and to the complexity of
international relationships I think it essential that you under-
stand that in Iran both diplomatic officials and military officers
SECRET
SECRET
From: Cairo
Page 10.
To:
AGWAR
Unnumbered May 13, 1943
of the United States appear to be giving the weight of their
influences to Russia as opposed to Britain. As evidence that
this is true I refer to (1) the diplomatic correspondence between
the United State Legation in Tehran and the State Department and
(2) the fact that the United States Military Commander in Tehran
has recently dispensed with G-2 services on the gound that the
United States Army intelligence operations in that area while
favored by the British were objectionable to Russia. The fore-
going statement should not be considered as a charge or as an
implication against the character, the ability or the patriotism
of the American officials in Iran but as an indication that
the situation there demands an immediate clarification of the
policies of the United States. Russia and the United States
are traditionally friends and at the peace table they must
have and must be entitled to the confidence of each other. The
achievement of the purposes of the Atlantic Charter and the peace
and prosperity of the world depend in great measure on the unity
of the English speaking people. If our present policy is con-
tinued in Iran it must ultimately alienate from the United States
either the British or the Russians. What is taking place at the
present time in Iran promotes and, unless corrected, ensures
disunity among the three greatest forces of the United Nations.
During the past 1/4 of a century the Middle East has been
SECRET
SECRET
From: Cairo
Page 11.
To:
AGWAR
Unnumbered May 13, 1943
recognized as a British Sphere of Influence. Britain was the
dominant power in that area notwithstanding the operations of
the French in the Lebanon and Syria and certain definite pene-
trations in the entire area by the Germans. Great Britain no
longer possesses within herself the essentials of power needed
to maintain her traditional role as the dominant influence in
the Middle East Area. The position of Britain in the Middle
East was waning even before the outbreak of the present War.
The antipathy for Great Britain in the Middle East has caused
a growth first of pro Nazi and now of pro Soviet sentiment.
Unless it is the carefully considered intention of the United
States to play a strong independent role in the Middle East
a policy which has not thus far been indicated our course
should be toward a reconciliation and integration of the
British American influences in Iran. Such joint action by
Britain and the United States should be directed toward de-
veloping strong enlightened native governments not only in Iran
but in other nations of the Middle East with Russia sharing
in a United Nations trusteeship for these local governments at
present American Army and civilian personnel in Iran are being
frustrated by lack of positive directions from our government
as to whether they should support conquest and imperialism or
SECRET
SECRET
From: Cairo
Page 12.
To: AGWAR
Unnumbered May 13, 1943
the Atlantic Charter and the four Freedoms or as to what
should be their attitude in the conflict between Russia and
Britain. American prestige is decreasing without any parallel
benefit to British prestige. There is a growing feeling among
the British officials in the field that the United States has
ambitions to become a colonial power. There is extensive
Axis propaganda to the effect that the Americans intend to
take over the British Empire. In my opinion the United States
Government is so constituted that it could not become & colonial
administrator without denying the fundamental principle of its
own existence. In addition to that I am certain that the United
States has no desire to become an imperialistic or colonial
power. If you should move into the situation in the Middle
East, however, with the precision and the force that conditions
demand and you may be accused at home of committing the United
States to Imperialism, exploitation, violation of the fundamental
our own government, and opposition to the principles of
principles of /the Atlantic Charter. In the face of all these
negatives I am convinced that strong action by you in this sit-
uation would be justified as a war emergency and & step toward
unity between Russia, Britsin and the United States and toward
the ultimate establishment of the principles of the Atlantic
Charter. The proper results in Iran cannot be achieved by your
support of British leadership alone. All of this leads to the
SECRET
SECRET
From: Cairo
Page 13.
To:
AGWAR
Unnumbered May 13, 1943
conclusion that integration of the British American policies
in Iran and maintenance of proper relations with the Russians
there must have your leadership rather than British leadership.
I believe you must assume at least that degree of leadership
that will justify the confidence of the officials and the
people of Iran in America's capacity to uphold the principles
of the Atlantic Charter and to assure the continued existence
of Iran as a free nation under your leadership there must be
found also EL solution of the Russian British conflict. I recommend
initially (1) that Iran be assured that America insists that
the principles of the Atlantic Charter do apply to Iran (2) that
Iran be permitted to join the United Nations in a declaration
of war against the Axis (3) that the American and British
Legations be raised immediately to the status of Embassies and
(4) that American and British Ambassadors compatible to each
other and able to understand and promote British American Russian
cooperation be appointed to Iran. I have discussed in a general
way my conclusions with the Rt Hon Richard D Casey.
No Sig.
REGRADED
UNCLASSIFIED
JUN 2 1972
SECRET
PSF: "
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
filemal 3-93
June 19, 1943
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT:
Admiral Richard Byrd telephoned the follow-
ing news about General Pat Hurley:
Dr. Hugh Young said they had operated on
him yesterday, and took out from his prostate an
enlargement as big as a tangerine, but it is not
malignant, and they will not have to take the pros-
tate out.
Pat Hurley is going to be all right soon.
The operation is considered very successful, and
everything was handled beautifully. Mr. Hurley
seemed to be full of pep and ginger.
E.M.W.
PSF: Hurle, forder
3-43
File
united Grabin
+ P. Hurby
Baltimore, Maryland
July 7, 1943.
The President of The United States
Washington, D. C.
My dear Mr. President:
I am transmitting to you herewith a report
which I prepared in Saudi Arabia. I held the report
with the hope that I might discuss the situation fully
with you at the time I submitted it. My illness has
caused such great delay that I feel that you are entitled
to a report of my observations without further postpone-
ment because of the many matters pertaining to Saudi
Arabia now under consideration. I hope to have the oppor-
tunity to discuss with you the matters covered by the re-
port, as well as other essentials, when I return to Wash-
ington.
I am, Sir,
Respectfully yours,
PATRICK HURLEY,
Brigadier General, U. S. A.
URGENT AND
June 9, 1943.
The President of The United States
Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. President:
I have just completed several days of conferences with
Ibn Saud, King of Saudi Arabia.
Ibn Saud is the wisest and strongest of all the leaders
I have met in the Arab states. He is a man of vision and execu-
tive ability ready to lead his people in keeping pace with the
progress of the world. He is, however, sensitive to the primi-
tive outlook of his countrymen and their reluctance to accept
foreign influences too readily.
Ibn Saud acknowledges frankly that his country for its
own safety and welfare needs the friendship and the assistance of
a strong foreign power, but he distrusts and fears foreign imper-
ialism. He is determined that his country will not become a pawn
or a mere instrument for profit of some foreign government.
The King has, however, great faith and confidence in the
United States. He looks to America and to you for the benevolent
friendship which his nation needs and for the integrity of lead-
ership which must be demonstrated by the United States 1f the
Atlantic Charter and the four freedoms are to become realities.
He expressed complete confidence in your leadership and sincerely
REGRADED
UNCLASSIFIED
JUN 2 1972
pleaded for your friendship.
I found many manifestations in Saudi Arabia of Ibn
Saud's confidence in America and of his eagerness that American
interests rather than those of any other foreign power, so often
instrumentalities for political penetration, should assist the
Saudi Arabian government in the development of the natural re-
sources of the country. The King pointedly referred to British
and French economic penetration in other sectors of the Middle
East. He made it clear that he will deny entry to Saudi Arabia
to any business interest which is dominated by an imperialistic
government and whose policies would be subject to such a govern-
ment rather than fully subject to Saudi Arabian authority.
For Saudi Arabia Ibn Saud has favored American interests
by granting all oil concessions, his most valuable natural asset,
to an American company, the California Arabian Standard 011 Comp-
any.
The King acknowledges that Britain has befriended his
country in recent months. He emphasized that he wishes to continue
friendly relations with the British government but he was positive
in asserting that insofar as it is within his power he will not
permit British or any other imporialism to rule or to influence
the internal life of Saudi Arabia.
At one time during the conferences the King dismis sed all
of his advisers who were present and asked me if I would permit my
interpreter to leave as he wanted to have a secret conference with
me.
Then the only persons present were the King, myself, and the
-2-
King's confidential interpreter. The King said that he was
making this conference secret for the reason that he wished to
discuss with me frankly his relations with Britain. He advised
me that what he was saying was for your information alone.
As soon as I had left the King I dictated the outlines
of his confidential communication to you. I will transmit it to
you as soon as I see you. I have thought best, however, not to
commit to writing in this report the King's secret communication.
While the King did not display bitter hostility toward
Britain, he expressed the opinion that the British government
still intends to force imperialistic rule on the Arab states.
I pointed out to him that Britain had renounced impe rialism as a
policy in the Atlantic Charter and that in addition to the Atlantic
Charter you had declared your unqualified commitment to the prino-
iples embodied in the four freedoms. He expressed confidence in
your commitment but he believes that the Atlantic Charter has been
repudiated on at least two occasions by Britain. Consequently,
he said, nations that are opposed to imperialism must place their
trust in you. He trusts you implicitly and his acceptance of the
principles promulgated by you is complete.
I was in conference with Ibn Saud when we received the
announcement from Moscow of the dissolution of the Third Interna-
tional. The King stated that he knew that Stalin, unlike Trotsky,
did not favor a world communist revolution but relied on the crea-
tion within Russia of a successful example of applied communism.
-3-
Relying on this estimate of Mr. Stalin's motives the King 6X=
pressed his own conviction, which he believed Moslems generally
would come to share, that Russia has sincerely renounced the
policy of forcing the world to accept communism. He concluded
by stating his conviction that Mr. Stalin's action at this time
was the result of your intervention.
In addition to the issue of imperialism, the King dis-
cussed with me three specific matters bearing upon his country
and the Arab peoples of the world. They were (1) the creation
of a union of Arab states, (2) the Palestine question, and (3)
the needs of Saudi Arabia.
Ibn Saud favors the eventual establishment of an Arab
union on principles similar to those embodied in the Constitution
of the United States. If such a union is established, he con-
tinued, it should participate in a world federation which he
thinks should also be patterned generally after the union of
American states.
Such a federation, he said, must depend heavily upon
American leadership and on application of the American principles
of equality and democracy to the structure of the postwar world.
I will omit in this report the King's discussion and ob-
jections to the establishment of a Jowish State in Palestine.
I am aware of the fact that he has sent you a letter on this sub-
ject and that he also has given an interview to the magazine "Life"
on the same subject. I, therefore, assume that his attitude is
-4-
well known to you.
As to the immediate needs of Saudi Arabia the King and
his advisers discussed with me four specific categories, namely:
food, transportation, communications and money.
I am aware that the Middle East Supply Center has re-
ceived schedules of the immediate needs of Saudi Arabia and has
approved at least parts of these schedules. It is the delay in
meeting the approved schedules that prompted the King to mention
their urgency to me. The King was also perplexed by the fact
that it had been indicated to him that American Lend-Lease to his
nation would be controlled by British authority. I was informed
that subsequent to my seeing the King he had been advised that
Lond-Lease will be handled directly between the United States and
Saudi Arabian Governments. This decision will eliminate the
bases of many misunderstand ngs.
The King and his Finance Minister, Abdullah Suleiman, dis-
cussed with me at length the fiscal difficulties of Saudi Arabia.
I understand that the Saudi Arabian monetary problem is also at
present being studied in Washington in the State Department. The
Saudi Arabian monetary problem is complicated by lack of realistic
application of religious principles and a primitive attitude toward
the requirements of modern commerce. The unit of Government
currency is the silver rial. Because the Saudi Arabian rial has
greater silver content than comparable units of currency in neigh-
boring nations the rial has disappeared through extensive hoarding
-5-
within Saudi Arabia and in nearby countries.
The suggestion was made that the silver content of the
Saudi Arabian rial be reduced and that silver coin or bullion
be deposited in the Saudi Arabian treasury or in a bank of issue
and paper money be issued against such deposit. This proposal
was met by the objection that such B. course would be considered
dishonest and prohibited under Moslem law and religious principles.
I have studied the Saudi Arabian fiscal situation and, 1f it is
deemed desirable by you, I will transmit my information on this
subject to the State Department. I recommend that immediate
attention be given to extending a loan to Saudi Arabia and to the
establishment for that country of a proper fiscal system.
There are two American-owned companies now operating in
Saudi Arabia. The first is the Saudi Arabian Mining Syndicate,
Ltd., a Canadian corporation American-owned. The operations of
this Company are not yet extensive. But the fact that the con-
cessions are made to an American-owned company is important. In
this report I wish to deal principally with petroleum.
Saudi Arabia stands today as the only state in the Middle
East not subjected to foreign imperialism. Once considered worth-
less desert land, the country has assumed its present importance
by reason of its strategic location and the discovery by an
American oil company of its great petroleum resources. The King
has stated definitely that he wishes the petroleum resources of
Saudi Arabia to be developed by American interests only.
-6-
Foremost of the factors which have stimulated the good
feeling expressed by the King and his people toward America
has been the work of the California Arabian Standard 011 Company
and its relations with the local government. Through agreements
dating from 1933 through 1939, this American oil company now
holds a definite lease on 290,000 square miles of Saudi Arabia
and 8 preferential right to lease an additional 177,000 square
miles. An additional 212,000 square miles covered by the con-
cessions are involved in boundary disputes between Saudi Arabia
and neighboring governments.
The California Arabian Company is a wholly-owned subsid-
iary of the Standard 011 Company of California and the Texas 011
Company. These two American concerns likewise are sole owners
of the Bahrein Petroleum Company, operators of a concession on
Bahrein Island, an independent sheikhdom in the Persian Gulf.
Through these two subsidiaries, the American interests have opened
four producing structures, three in Saudi Arabia and one in
Bahrein. In my opinion three hundred thousand barrels of oil per
day could be produced from these four structures alone. I believe
a much greater yield would follow from additional structures.
Saudi Arabia is potentially one of the greatest oil
areas in the world.
The concessions held by the California Arabian Company
in Saudi Arabia have a term of sixty years and provide for a
royalty to the government of twenty-three cents per barrel. The
-7-
terms of the concessions appear to be equitable and fair. The
government of Saudi Arabia is well pleased with its contract and
the King is high in his praise of the cooperation and assistance
he has received from the company.
Notable in the latter category has been the drilling of
water wells and construction of irrigation works. Lack of soil
fertility and lack of water by reason of an average rain-fall of
only three inches limit the development of agricultural irrigation
projects.
Notwithstanding these limitations, the King and his ad-
visers said that with the revenue derived from the development of
their oil resources and with the help of the American petroleum
engineers he believed that sufficient agricultural irrigation
projects could be developed to enable Saudi Arabia to produce
sufficient food for its population.
The King mentioned that the United States through Lend-
Lease and through sales and priorities has furnished British-
controlled oil companies operating in the Persian Gulf area with
steel, iron, tin, rubber, machinery for drilling purposes, pipe-
lines, refining machinery, and other commodities to enable those
companies to conduct great expansion and development programs.
But up to this time, ho said, no priorities had been given to the
American company developing Saudi Arabian oil resources. Inasmuch
as he has favored American interests by giving them the sole pet-
roleum concession in Saudi Arabia, he feels that the oil resources
-8-
of his country should be developed as rapidly as those of nearby
British-controlled areas. In this connection he indicated that
possibly his feeling on this subject is accentuated by the dire
need for the revenue that the development of the oil resources
would bring.
The one factor in all of the foregoing that I think will
strike you as it does me is the statement of the King that he
desires the development of Saudi Arabian oil resources to be con-
ducted by an American company or companies that would be completely
subjected to the authority of Saudi Arabia rather than any other
Government.
I can understand the King's desire in this matter.
Operating companies should always be primarily subject to the
government of the country in which they are operating. I am, how-
ever, rather inclined to the opinion that eventually American oil
companies developing foreign resources must be subjected to a
degree of supervision by the American government. Such companies
also must have a degree of protection in foreign countries by their
own government. Finally, the American government will have to
acquire a degree of ownership of American companies operating in
foreign territory sufficient to assure governmental supervision
without destroying private ownership or private initiative. In
the meantime, I recommend the Saudi Arabian situation be handled
through the instrumentalities now existing and in your hands.
American control of the Saudi Arabian oil resources
places you in a trading position that will enable you to obtain
-9-
for all concerned an equitable allotment of the oil resources of
Africa, the Middle East, and continuing through Afghanistan to
the Far East.
The development of the situation in Saudi Arabia gives
you, Mr. President, the possibility for a complete answer to the
critics who tell us we are exhausting our oil resources at home
without any hope of replacement. The development of the great
oil resources of Saudi Arabia will give you a supply of this essen-
tial commodity in a strategic location. The development of this
great resource will enable you to see that an equitable share of
this wealth is used for the benefit of the people of Saudi Arabia
who own it. And finally, after having served all these purposes,
this resource will be of great importance to our own country in
the reconstruction period after the war.
Your leadership and American prestige stand high. Great
confidence in American ability and honesty of purpose has been
established in Saudi Arabia. With American assistance, King Ibn
Saud hopes to give his people the opportunity to help themselves
in creating (1) irrigation projects to enable the country to pro-
vide food without having to rely on imports, (2) a system of roads,
(3) acquisition of transportation facilities, (4) a communications
system, (5) an educational system, (6) a public health system, and
other essentials for the welfare of the people and the support of
-10-
an independent nation.
I am, Sir,
Respectfully yours,
PATRICK HURLEY,
Brigadier General, U. S.A.
yes
(1661)
him
PSF: Hurley
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
August 30, 1943.
MEMORANDUM FOR
THE SECRETARY OF STATE
I wish you would read this
letter from Pat Hurley and my
reply to him.
I think that in some way
the State Department should issue
a public warning to the general
effect that Mr. Peareon is not to
be believed in anything that he
writes. He is rendering a great
disservice to his country.
Please let me have the en-
closures back for my files.
F. D. R.
Signed copy of letter from Brig. Genl.
Patrick J. Hurley, 8/20/43, to the
President, marked "Secret", together
with copy of the President's reply
of 8/30/43 to Gen. Hurley, in re
printed story in Drew Pearson's column.
THE your FOR s a /
/ ide /
// THE
PSF: Hurley
PERSONAL AND
CONFID) TIAL
August 30, 1943.
Dear Pats-
Thank you for yours of August nineteenth
referring to a printed story in Drew Pearson's
column. You are quite right in answering none of
the letters from Jews or others who believe Drew
Pearson's columns.
His ill-considered, falsehoods have come
to the point where he is doing much hars to his
own Government and to other nations. It is a pity
writes. that anyone anywhere believes anything that he
80 much for Mr. Drew Pearson.
Always sincerely,
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
Brigadier General Patrick J. Hurley,
301 Hillside Avenue,
Santa Fe,
New Mexico.
this
SECRET
301 Hillside Avenue,
Santa Fe, New Mexico.
August 20, 1943
Hon. Franklin D. Roosevelt,
President of the United States,
The White House,
Washington, D. C.
My dear Mr. President:-
This letter is for the purpose of keeping the record
straight.
I rendered a written report to you on my conversations
with His Majesty Ibn Saud, King of Saudia Arabia. I
amplified that report verbally in a conference with
you.
In his column published on various dates in various
newspapers and in the Santa Fe New Mexican on August
17, 1943, Mr. Drew Pearson has made the following
statement:-
"Ibn Saud, now recognized as the most power-
ful of all Arabs, gave Hurley some strong
words against the Jews in Palestine, saying
he was determined to drive them from all
Arab lands. Hurley reported that he had
told Ibn Saud diplomatically that he was in
agreement."
King Ibn Saud never made any such statement to me and I
never made any such reply to the King. I did not report
to you or to anyone else any such conversation.
The balance of Mr. Pearson's column above referred to on
the Arab-Jewish policy is also false so far as I am con-
cerned.
REGRADED
UNCLASSIFIED
JUN 2 1972
SECRET
Page #2
Hon. Franklin D. Roosevelt
Aug.19,1943
From Mr. Pearson's column and from the Washington Daily
News of August 19th, I notice that certain congressmen
and senators, especially Congressman Emanuel Cellar of
New York, have made various false charges against me,
all, I presume, based on the Pearson falsehood. In addi-
tion to all that, they threaten me with a congressional
investigation. Besides that which is appearing in the
press, I am receiving letters from Zionist Jews. Every-
one of these contains an attack or at least language that
is intimidating.
I am being baited by the Jews.
I am not at all worried or even annoyed by these false
accusations. I feel, however, that the purpose of this
falsehood is to injure my relations and, more important,
the relations of the United States with the King of
Saudia Arabia. The latter at this time might, as you
know, cause some delays and embarrassment. In justice
to King Ibn Saud I think it should be repeated here that
the falsehoods published by Mr. Pearson and his backers
do unjustly misrepresent the King. King Ibn Saud ex-
pressed to me the most kindly solicitude for the welfare
of the Jewish communities in the Arab nations. The
Arabs always speak of the Jews as their kinspeople. The
King is opposed to giving a Jewish minority control over
an Arab majority in any Arab nations.
In my written report to you I did not detail my conversa-
tions with King Ibn Saud on the Palestine problem. I
merely said that the King's attitude on that subject had
been published in an interview in Life magazine and had
been expressed in a letter to you personally. All of
this occurred before I conferred with the King. All this
makes more absurd the Jewish attack on me. Notwith-
standing this I have not answered any of the letters,
nor have I replied to any of the attacks that have been
published. As your personal representative I have de-
termined to discuss the subject only with you.
I am, sir, with great respect,
Yours sincerely,
REGRADED
UNCLASSIFIED
Patrick Hurley
JUN 2 1972
you
firme
PSF: Hurley
3-43
American Legation
Cairo, Egypt.
November 16, 1943.
PARAPHRASE
SECRET
For $ Brigadier General Patrick J. Hurley.
On November 6, 1943 this Legation received a telegram from the
Deapartment of State, dated November 5, 9 p.m. for delivery to General
Hurley. The message was repeated to the American Mission at New Delhi
where it was understood that General Hurley could be reached at the
time. That Mission advised that the message had not been delivered,
and with the return of General Hurley to Cairo it is communicated here-
with in paraphrase:
"The President has indicated his desire that "Ord Mission" be
undertaken by you for him in Iran. Is this proposal agreeable to you?
It is anticipated that the assignment would last only a few weeks. It
is proposed that you be given the temporary rank of Major-General in the
Army of the United States and that you have the title of Special
Representative of the President with the rank of Ambassador."
State Dept. Letter, 1-11-72
DECLASSIFIED
By & a Parks Date JUN 2 1972
Cairo, Egypt.
20 November 1943.
Honorable Franklin D. Roosevelt,
President of the United States,
The White House,
Washington, D. C.
I have inspected the Chinese Theatre of Operations, I spent considerable
time with the American Generals, Lieutenant General Stilwell, Major General
Chennault, and other Chinese and American Army Officers. I was accompanied
into the Chinese Theatre by Major General Stratemeyer who is Commander of
the American Air Operations in the India and China Theatres. I had two con-
ferences with the President of China, Generalissimo Chieng Kai-shek, The
Generalissimo expressed his complete confidence in you, in your motives, and
in the principles that you have promulgated.
The Ceneralissimo talked very frankly about the coming conference in
Cairo, He questioned whether or not he could meet Marshal Stalin at Teheran
on the terms of amity becoming such a meeting. He related to me frankly the
causes that impelled him to hesitate to have a personal meeting with Marshal
Stalin. He related to me his suspicions concerning Russia's desires to
communize China and perhaps for a complete conquest and annexation to Russia
of a portion of China,
I recalled to him Marshal Stalin's renunciation of world conquest as a
fundamental policy of communism. I told him that in my opinion Marshal
1 -
GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION
The National Archives
THE FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
/ UNITED STATES
LIBRARY
Papers of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Hyde Park, N. Y.
0. 7. 200
Three Centimeters
CRET
Stalin is now committed to the proposition that communism can succeed in
Russia alone without an attempt being made to force it on the rest of the
world. I seid also that in my opinion Russia is no longer subsidising or
directing communist activities in other nations. I suggested to the
Ceneralissimo that Russie's own experience with communism in Russia is to
some extent neutralizing what we considered to be the harsher elements of
the communistic ideology. I said that I realized that there are communist
political parties in other nations but in my opinion such parties are neither
directed nor. subsidized from Russia.
In corroboration of these arguments I drew the Generalissimo's attention
to the recent Moscow declaration. Notwithstanding this, the Generalissimo
still appeared to entertain grave doubts of the friendly intentions of the
Soviet Government toward China.
The Generalissimo stated that he wished to see you first in Cairo and
much depended on his conference with you as to whether or not he would
subsequently confer with Marshal Stalin.
I hope I may have the opportunity of discussing with you the Chinese-
Russian problem before you have a conference with the Generalissimo.
The Generalissimo stated that so far as you and Prime Minister Churchill
are concerned he has no doubt of being able to find a basis of complete co->
operation.
As President of China and as Generalissimo, Chiang Kai-chek will re-
commend that the coming conference reiterate the Atlantic Charter. If
possible he would like to have your Four Freedoms specifically included in
the declaration of the Cairo or Teheran conference.
After conferences with the Generalissimo which covered approximately
six hours, I have drawn the following conclusions:
- 2 -
GENE L SERVICE if TRATION
The National Archivés
-
THE FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
ORN
LIBRARY
Papers of President Franklin D. Receevelt
Hyde Park, N, Y.
NE ...... SOME
Three Centimeters
0. F.200
SECRET
(2) The Generalissimo and the Chinese people favor the principles of
democracy and liberty.
(2) The Generalissimo and the Chinese people are opposed to the principles
of imperialism and communism.
(3) He believes that you, of course, favor democracy and liberty. He
understands, however, that you may temporarily have to temporize with in-
porialism and commism in the interests of the joint war effort.
(4) He 10 aware that the future co-operation and unity of the United
Nations must depend upon your ability to assimilate rather than eliminate
divergent ideologies. He is convinced that you must find principles on
which the 316 Four nations can agree. In seeking these principles he feels
that you must have extensive freedom of action.
(5) No wanted me to say to you that be has implicit confidence in your
uptives and that he 10 committed to the fundamental principles which you have
promulgated.
(6) He mill, therefore, follow your leadership on the diplocatic and
political questions that will be considered in the impending conference.
On strategy he finds himself unable to accept a subordinate position in
the Asiatic area to Lord Mountbatten. He stated that so far as the Chinese
Theatre of Operations to concerned he must beisupremo, He stated that if he
should accept a secondary position in that theatre it would divide his follow-
Inc and eventually no maken Ms position that he could no longer maintain
himself OUT the leader of all China, Notwithstanding this attitude he to ready
to cooperate fully with Lord Mountlation and he thinks that In Northern Proma
and eventually in Thailand and possibly in Indo-Chine, there would be circun-
stances in which he would Savor the control of British, American and Chinese
troops being placed under one commander. He said that he personally liked
GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION
The National Archives
THE FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
LIBRARY
Papers of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
ligite Park, N. Y.
0. F.200
STATE
Three centineters
****
Lord Mountbatten and that he could visualize future operations outside of
China where he would want his Lordship to be the Supreme Commander of United
Nations forces, including Chinese Armies, However, he was steadfast in main-
tenance of the principle that in the Chinese Theatre it is better for himself
end China and the United Nations that he should remain the ultimate authority.
He expressed the opinion that the subjugetion of Japan should be sought
through an attack on Japan in Japan. Attacks should be made from various
sectors of the Pacific Theatre, the India-Surnese and the. Chinese Theatres
simultaneously. These attacks should be co-ordinated and directed toward
the ultimate occupation and conquest of Japon in Japan. Tokio and all Japan
1s the objective rather than any state, island or citadel outside of Japan,
He also spoke with clarity of the strategy of attacking Tokio and all Japan
through China,
In all of the foregoing it will be apparent to you that I have confined
myself to a liscussion of the attitude of President-Ceneralissimo Chiang
Kai-shek toward a meeting vita Marshal Stalin. I have purposely refrained
from injecting into this letter any of the reasons why Marshal Stalin might
not want a public moeting with Ching Kel-chok at this moment. For instance,
Varshal Stalin might be opposed to taking any action that might cause the
closing of the Port of Vladivostok, Moreover, you may find that Marshal
Stalin might be convinced that it would be unwise to take any action that
might bring an enesy down on Mr In the present posture of the conflict,
In ovaluating the Goneralissimo's conversations it to advisable to con-
sider with some skepticism the Chinese capacity, or readiness, to contribute
materially to offensive sarfare. Tt is advisable likewise to give consideration
to the relative Importance placed to the Chinese Central Covernment upon come
serving Its trength for maintensace of its postmar Internal supremecy as
4
GENE L SERVICE RATION
The National Archiver
THE FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
LIBRARY
Papers of President Franklin D. Receevelt
FROM STATE
Ryde Park. N. Y.
0. F. 200
Three Centimeters
ECR
against the more immodiate objective of defeating Japan. There are questions
T should like to discuss with you further.
Respectfully yours,
PATRICK J. HWEY,
Prigadier General, ".5.A
- 5 -
GENERAL SERVICE ADMINISTRATION
The National Archives
THE FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
LIBRARY
Papers of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
(
hyde Park, N. Y.
o. 7. 200
Three centimeters
Twey Chuna folder
PSF: Hurley
SECRET
Jerusalem, Palestine.
January 28, 1944.
Honorable Franklin D. Roosevelt,
President of the United States,
The White House,
Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. President:
I have had extended conversations in Palestine and Trans-
Jordan with the British High Commissioner, American Consul-
General, Dr. Magness of the Hebrew University, the Emir of
Trans-Jordan and his staff, Mr. Kirkbride, British Resident in
Trans-Jordan, and others.
Conditions in that area are unsatisfactory. The unrest
seems to involve not only Palestine but Trans-Jordan, The
Lebanon and Syria. There is a movement on foot to create a
republic including the four nations mentioned. The Emir of
Trans-Jordan is in favor of creating a Kingdom, comprised of
the four nations, with himself as King. Indications are that
1f any change is made, and it is doubtful if there will be any,
a republic, rather than a kingdom, will be established. The
British force here 18 necessary on account of disturbed con-
ditions. Because of the fact that the British are maintaining
law and order they are more popular here than in any place in
the Middle East.
I have obtained from Dr. Magness and others of the less
- 1 -
REGRADED
JUN 2 1972
UNCLASSIFIED
SECRET
partisan type on both sides some good suggestions on the
Palestine problem which I will be happy to discuss with you.
Tomorrow I will go to Cairo for a brief visit after which
I will spend some days in the Lebanon and Syria at the close
of which I will be able to render you a more definite outline
and perhaps recommendations on the situation in this area.
Respectfully yours,
PATRICK J HURLEY,
Brigadier General, U.S.A.
REGRADED
UNCLASSIFIED
- 2 -
RECRADED
UNCLASSIFIED
Jerusalem, Palestine.
January 28, 1944.
Honorable Franklin D. Roosevelt,
President of the United States,
The White House,
Washington, D. 0.
Dear Mr. President:
I have had extended conversations in Palestine and Trans-
Jordan with the British High Commissioner, American Consul-
General, Dr. Magness of the Hebrew University, the Emir of
Trans-Jordan and his staff, Mr. Kirkbride, British Resident in
Trans-Jordan, and others.
Conditions in that area are unsatisfactory. The unrest
seems to involve not only Palestine but Trans-Jordan, The
Lebanon and Syria. There is a movement on foot to create a
republic including the four nations mentioned. The Emir of
Trans-Jordan is in favor of creating a Kingdom, comprised of
the four nations, with himself as King. Indications are that
if any change is made, and it is doubtful if there will be any,
a republic, rather than a kingdom, will be established. The
British force here is necessary on account of disturbed con-
ditions. Because of the fact that the British are maintaining
law and order they are more popular here than in any place in
the Middle East.
I have obtained from Dr. Magness and others of the less
REGRADED
UNCEASSIFIED
partisan type on both sides some good suggestions on the
Palestine problem which I will be happy to discuss with you.
Tomorrow I will go to Caire for a brief visit after which
I will spend some days in the Lebanon and Syria at the close
of which I will be able to render you a more definite outline
and perhaps recommendations on the situation in this area.
Respectfully yours,
PATRICK J. HURLEY,
Brigadier General, U.S.A.
- 2 -
PSF: Hurley
SECRET
REGRADED
Jerusalem, Palestine.
UNCLASSIFIED
January 28, 1944.
JUN 2 1972
Honorable Franklin D. Roosevelt,
President of the United States,
The White House,
Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. President:
Since leaving Afghanistan I have confirmed the impression
I received there which is that neither Russia nor Britain has
the confidence of the Afghanistan Government. All the members
of the Government, including the King, expressed their complete
confidence in you. The fact that the United States Government
has no imperialistic designs may be regarded as the chief
reason why it 18 trusted by Afghanistan and by all the nations
of the Middle East. The King of Afghanistan 1s also familar
with the principles advocated by you. He expressed himself as
being in complete accord and anxious to follow your leadership.
The King of Afghanistan was delighted by the Iran Declaration.
He said it gave all nations of the Middle East and Central Asia
confidence in their own future. Throughout the Middle East you
are accredited with having obtained the Iran Declaration from
Britain and Russia.
I think that it would be appropriate for you to send the
King of Afghanistan a message somewhat on the order of the one
you sent to Marshal Stalin after my first visit with him,
- 1 -
SECRET
thanking the King for his candor and his kindness to me as your
representative and expressing a friendliness for him and his
country and a desire for closer cooperation. This may serve to
draw the Government of Afghanistan closer to you. A closer
relationship between America and the Government of Afghanistan
may be of great service not only to America but to our Allies in
the conflicts that may arise in that area.
Respectfully yours,
PATRICK J HURLEY,
Brigadier General, U. S. A.
- 2 -
RECRADED
UNCLASSIFIED
Jerusalem, Palestine.
January 28, 1944.
Honorable Franklin Do Roosevelt,
President of the United States,
The White House,
Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. President:
Since leaving Afghanistan I have confirmed the impression
I received there which is that neither Russia nor Britain has
the confidence of the Afghanistan Government. All the members
of the Government, including the King, expressed their complete
confidence in you. The fact that the United States Government
has no imperialistic designs may be regarded as the chief
reason why it is trusted by Afghanistan and by all the nations
of the Middle East. The King of Afghanistan is also familar
with the principles advocated by you. He expressed himself as
being in complete accord and anxious to follow your leadership.
The King of Afghanistan was delighted by the Iran Declaration.
He said it gave all nations of the Middle East and Central Asia
confidence in their own future. Throughout the Middle East you
are accredited with having obtained the Iran Declaration from
Britain and Russia.
I think that it would be appropriate for you to send the
King of Afghanistan a message somewhat on the order of the one
you sent to Marshal Stalin after my first visit with him,
- 1
REGRADED JUN 2 1972
UNCLASSIFIED
REGRADED
UNCLASSIFIED
thanking the King for his candor and his kindness to me as your
representative and expressing a friendliness for him and his
country and a desire for closer cooperation. This may serve to
draw the Government of Afghanistan closer to you. A closer
relationship between America and the Government of Afghanistan
may be of great service not only to America but to our Allies in
the conflicts that may arise in that area.
Respectfully yours,
PATRICK J. HURLEY,
Brigadier General, U. S. A.
- 2 -
you 3.00
PSF: Hurley
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
a
February 11, 1944
MEMORANDUM FOR MISS GRACE TULLY
Dear Miss Tully:
Mr. Hopkins has seen the
attached letter to the President
from Brig. Gen. Patrick J. Hurley
and it can now be filed.
H.L.H.
encl.
PSF: Hurley
SECRET
Pauch
New Delhi, India.
7 November 1943.
Honorable Franklin D. Roosevelt,
President of the United States,
The White House,
Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. President:
I have reached this point on my way eastward and am
expecting to proceed in another day or so. I feel, however,
that you are entitled at this time to a written expression
of some of my present views on the Middle East.
I have spoken to you previously in personal conferences
concerning the administration of lend lease in the Middle
East. I have also discussed with you the controversies that
the administration of lend lease has caused between the
Americans and the British. I have been reluctant to make a
written report to you on this subject. We should hesitate to
put criticism of ourselves or the British in writing as long
8.8 there 1s a possibility that, by proper action, the defects
in our relations may be corrected.
The administration of lend lease in the Middle East has
been characterized 8.8 inefficient and injurious to American
- 1 -
REGRADED
UNCLASSIFIED
JUN 2 1972
REGRADED
SECRET
UNCLASSIFIED
prestige. The damage done to American prestige is not compen-
sated by any corresponding improvement in British prestige.
The controversy results in total loss for both of us. A funda-
mental change in the administration of lend lease in the Middle
East 1s necessary.
In justice to the British and to ourselves, I deem it
proper to state bluntly the causes that have led to the present
undercover debate between the British and the Americans on the
subject of lend lease.
(1) The British claim and receive credit for almost all
the American lend lease supplies heretofore given to Middle East
nations.
(2) The British are selling American lend lease supplies
and are not accounting to America for the proceeds.
(3) The British intercept lend lease supplies intended
for other nations and reserve them for British use.
(4) The British fail and sometimes refuse to make any
intelligible record of the amount and/or the value of lend
lease supplies distributed and thus cause confusion and con-
troversy.
(5) The British are using American lend lease and American
troops not for the purpose of creating a brave new world based
on the Atlantic Charter and the four freedoms but for British
conquest, British imperialist rule, and British trade monopoly.
It is quite generally maintained in the Middle East that
American foreign policy is now directed toward these latter
purposes.
- 2 -
REGRADED
SEGRET
UNCLASSIFIED
(6) The British are conducting a world wide propaganda
program to minimize the amount of lend lease supplies delivered
and to belittle the effect of America's productive capacity and
fighting manpower on the war effort.
(7) There are many Britishers who openly claim that they
have the support of prominent American officials in this pro-
gram of disparagement of the American war effort generally for
the purpose of improving British world position.
(8) The Americans who claim due credit for America's
contribution both in production and in manpower toward the
victory and who still maintain that we are fighting for the
principles of the Atlantic Charter and the four freedoms are
called the die-hard isolationists.
(9) The British now claim nearly all the airfields built
by Americans, or by local labor, paid with American money,
under American direction. They claim also all of the valuable
installations that Americans have placed on these fields. One
British publication which I have read referred to "airdromes
which British engineering skill and American muscle have
created in the heart of what, not long ago, was darkest Africa".
The Americans believe that these fields were created by
American engineering skill and American muscle backed by
American equipment and American money.
(10) A final point of controversy is that the British
Overseas Airways Corporation is using many lend lease planes,
converted to freight and passenger carrying, in commercial
- 3 -
SEARET
REGRADED
enterprise.
UNCL/ SSIFIED
The British have a well organized force of administrators
in all of the Middle East nations except Saudi Arabia. These
forces are nearly all in military uniform but a large number
of them are not soldiers. They are civil servants, clerks,
diplomats, and experts in imperialist propaganda and colonial
exploitation.
The British have moved into the French mandated areas,
the Lebanon and Syria, a large force of uniformed experts de-
signated as the "Spears Commission". This commission has
succeeded in taking the civil control in the French area out
of the hands of the French. The British propaganda publicity
would indicate that the powers of government have been returned
to the inhabitants. It 18 well understood by the inhabitants,
however, that the ultimate control in the French mandated areas
18 now in the hands of the British.
The British now control civil governments in all of the
nations of the Middle East except Saudi Arabia and except Iran
where control is shared, but not harmoniously, between the
British and the Russians.
The British have military forces in all of the Middle East
nations except Saudi Arabia. The United States does not have
civil or military control over any of the governments of the
Middle East.
Any effort on the part of the United States to govern
other nations without their consent except as a military
- 4 -
SECRET
UNCLASSIFIED
necessity and by military organization would be a denial of
the fundamental principle of our own existence as a nation.
In our participation in the government of other nations,
except as a military necessity, our operations must be limited
by the fact that we are committed to the principle that govern-
ments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.
Leading spokesmen in all of the nations of the Middle East
have expressed to me their condemnation of the British methods
and the motives of British control of civil administration in
the area. They charge openly that every place where the British
Empire rules another people there 1s poverty, ignorance and
oppression. They charge that Britain always takes but never
gives. They charge that Britain's objective in the Middle East
is complete subjugation of that entire area to British imperial-
1sm and British economic monopoly.
Notwithstanding all of these criticisms, the British did
have a well organized administration in each of the nations of
the Middle East. It seemed expedient, therefore, that our lend
lease administration should rely on the British to furnish
guidance on the kind and quantity of lease lend supplies needed
and also for distribution of those supplies.
The military forces of the British in the Middle East
could not have been maintained without American lend lease
supplies and equipment. At no time could the British give
supplies to the Middle East nations except as provided directly
- 5 -
REGRADED
SECRET
UNCLASSIFIED
or indirectly through American lend lease. This 1s true
whether the supplies are shipped directly from America or
from Britain. If and when any supplies are shipped on lend
lease from Britain to the Middle East such shipments are
possible only after British reserves have been built up in
Britain by American lend lease. Before lend lease Britain
did-not have sufficient supplies or equipment for the British
at home. This fact 18 understood fully by all Americans who
participated in the "Bundles for Britain" campaign before the
advent of lend lease. Even in the case of diversion of supplies
from the British Commonwealths and Dominions to the Middle East
there are balancing shipments from the United States to meet
needs of the British Isles, Commonwealths and Dominions. It
1s evident, therefore, that however lend lease to the Middle
East may be designated the ultimate charge for it is against
the American taxpayer.
In fairness to the lend lease administration it should
be pointed out that at the time they decided to conduct the
lend lease program in the Middle East through British channels
there was no reason to believe that the British would claim
credit for the American lend lease supplies distributed in the
Middle East or that they would claim that the various nations
receiving lend lease supplies were obligated for such supplies
to Britain and not to the United States.
It should be understood that the claims that Britain has
made for credit for American lend lease do not originate with
- 6 -
REGRADED
SEGRET
UNCLASSIFIED
subordinate British officials. Certain speeches made by Lord
Halifax in the United States have been propagandized here for
the purpose of minimizing the amount and the effect of American
lend lease. Recently there appeared in the "Egyptian Mail" a
propaganda article, dated at Detroit, Michigan, purporting to be
and address by Mr. John J. Llewellin, British Minister of Supply
in Washington. The article was headed "Britain outstrips the
world in aircraft production". The whole article that followed
was intended to minimize the effect of American production and
lend lease supplies. Even the Right Honorable Richard Casey,
British Minister of State for the Middle East, has claimed
publicly that Britain was furnishing 50% of all lend lease to
this area. I am saying this only that you may know that the
propaganda on this subject, which has for its purpose giving to
Britain rather than to the United States the credit for lend
lease, does originate with high officials of the British Empire.
This situation has led to what appears to be an interminable and
acromonious debate between British and American officials. I
am convinced that the Americans did not start this debate.
At the same time, there 1s widespread expression that
"the British instead of being grateful for American lend lease
look upon the American taxpayer, who 18 carrying the full load,
as the prize sucker of the world".
In turning originally to a British instrumentality for the
administration of lend lease in this area it was natural that the
choice should be the Middle East Supply Center, set up in
1941, 8.8 an overall agency for coordination of supply operations.
- 7 -
REGRADED
SECRET
UNCLASSIFIED
While the Middle East Supply Center has become theoretically
a joint Anglo-American agency, the operating personnel 1s
approximately 90% British and 10% American. Among the Americans
connected with the Middle East Supply Center there have been
some very conscientious and able men. I regret to say,
however, there are also among them "pole sitters" for whose
opinions and abilities the British have held natural disdain.
A "pole sitter" 1s an exhibitionist who attracts public
attention by the length of time that he 18 able to sit still
in what appears to be a hazardous position but which 1s in fact
8. secure position. The "pole sitters" are not by any means
all connected with lend lease alone. They are in Washington
and in London, in the Army and in the Navy, and throughout
the far flung theatres of operation.
The fact that the British completely dominate the Middle
East Supply Center and consequently the distribution of lend
lease supplies in the Middle East is due to the fact that we
have had no organization able to say what supplies are required
or to distribute them when they have been furnished. The
average British colonial servant does not look upon Americans
with the same generous attitude that Americans demonstrate
toward Britishers. Primarily this attitude is due to the fact
that the British are imperialists and the Americans are democrats.
If we can bring ourselves to an understanding of this fact we
will not be so quick to blame the British for having taken
- 8 -
REGRADED
SECRET
UNCL.SSIFIED
advantage of our weakness and having claimed for themselves
credit for our lend lease. The weakness was on our side for
having permitted the situation to develop.
Your Minister, Dr. Landis, has taken hold of the supply
situation in the Middle East with a firm hand. I have had
several conferences with him. I think he is capable and that
he 1s committed to a policy beneficial to American interests
and in the long run to Anglo-American relations.
I have presented this story to you not for the purpose
of continuing any controversy between ourselves and the British
but for the purpose of stopping it.
I can support a policy that has for its immediate purpose
the preservation of the British Empire as a first class world
power but in doing so we should not permit ourselves to be
placed in the position of rendering lip service only to the
principles of the Atlantic Charter and the four freedoms.
These principles must be accorded proper respect and due weight
in the postwar world.
In the foregoing pages I have deliberately stated the
issues in sharp outlines because I believe that if you are
familiar with the worst phases of the controversy you will be
in a better position to mark your future course.
RECOMMENDATIONS
(1) As I have suggested to you verbally, I recommend
that the policy making and direction of lend lease be placed
exclusively and in actuality under proper civilian authority
in the State Department. Lend lease is a potent instrument in
- 9 -
SECRET
international relations. With the occupation of territory now
held by the Axis, lend lease will increase in international
importance.
(2) I further recommend that all operations pertaining to
distribution of lend lease goods in foreign territory be trans-
ferred to the United States Army. This change would, in my
opinion, give to lend lease operations military efficiency.
It would place both lend lease policies and operations completely
in American hands and would, in my opinion, eliminate the basis
of the present lend lease controversy with Britain.
At the same time, this method of handling should bring fair
credit for lend lease to the United States and very materially
strengthen our position in all of our international relations.
Respectfully yours,
PATRICK J. HURLEY,
Brigadier General, U.S.A.
- 10 -
seen Corres "If 3-44
PSF: Hurley
August 18, 1944.
Dear General Barley:-
You are hereby designated as my
personal representative with Generalissise Chiang
Kai-shek, reporting directly to m. Your principal
mission is to promote efficient and harmonious
relations between the Generalissimo and General
Stilwell to facilitate General Stilvell's exercise
of command over the Chinese Armies placed under
his direction. You will be charged with additional
and specific sissions.
In carrying out your missions it
is desired that you maintain intimate touch with
the U. 8. Ambassador to China, keeping his advised
of your actions.
Very sincerely yours,
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELI
Major General Patrick J. Hurley,
War Department,
Washington, D. c.
(copies of these two FOR ltrs filed - dr.1-44) China folder,
SECRET
WAR DEPARTMENT
THE CHIEF OF STAFF
WASHINGTON
18 August 1944
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT:
There is attached a proposed draft of a directive
from the President to General Hurley. Lack of knowledge
of the President's desires in the matter make it in-
practicable to present a draft directive for Mr. Nelson.
Chief of Staff
Franklin D. Roceivelt Librury
DECLASSIFIED
DOD DIR. 5200.P (9/27/58)
Date- 9-20-66
POPYICTORY
BUY
Signature- Carl L. specer
ENITED
STATES
WAR
BONDS
-
STAMM
SECRET
SECRET
WAR DEPARTMENT
THE CHIEF OF STAFF
WASHINGTON
AUG 13 1944
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT:
There is attached a proposed draft of a directive
from the President to General Hurley. Lack of knowledge
of the President's desires in the matter make it in-
practicable to present a draft directive for Hr. Nelson.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Library
(&qd) G.C. MARSHALL
DECLASSIFIED
Chief of Staff
DUD DIR. 5200.9 (9/27/58)
Date- 9-20-66
Signature- Care L. specer
Copy to be returned to originating office
FORVICTORY
in the War Department showing action
BUY
taken
UNITED
STATES
WAR
BONDS
AND
STAMPS
SECRET
SECRET
Dear General Hurley:
You are hereby designated as my personal representative with
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, reporting directly to me. Your
principal mission is to promote efficient and harmonious relations
between the Generalissimo and General Stilwell to facilitate
General Stilwell's exercise of command over the Chinese Armies
placed under his direction. You will be charged with additional
and specific missions.
In carrying out your missions it is desired that you main-
tain intimate touch with the U. S. Ambassador to China, keeping
him advised of your actions.
SECRET
August 19, 1944.
"Personal"
My dear Generalissimo:
This will introduce to you my two very good
personal friends, General Hurley, former Secretary of
War, and now a Major General; and Mr. Donald M. Nelson
the head of the War Production Board.
General Hurley is to be my personal repre-
sentative on military matters and you can talk to
him with the utmost freedom. His principal mission
is to coordinate the whole military picture under
you as Military Commander-in-Chief - your being, of
course, the Commander-in-Chief of the whole area -
to help to iron out any problems between you and
General Stilwell who, of course, has problems of his
own regarding the Burma campaign and is necessarily
in close touch with Admiral Mountbatten.
Mr. Nelson was, as I have written you, the
head of Sears Roebuck Company, the largest distri-
buting company for all manner of goods -- farm goods,
industrial goods and household goods - the greatest
business of that kind in the United States. As soon
as we got into the war he came to the Government in
charge of the War Production Board and has made &
splendid record in multiplying American production
many fold, 80 that it has arrived at the point where
we are talking not only of keeping the present pro-
duction up, but of making plans for the restoration
of this production to terms of peace. I think that
you will find him extremely understanding and
sympathetic.
- 2 -
He does not, of course, supersede the
Secretary of the Treasury in matters of finance,
but he has many original ideas and will quickly
understand your economic policy.
In the case of both of them, I want you
to feel free to talk to them frankly, as they are
both literally my personal representatives.
Good luck - and keep up the good work.
Always sincerely,
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
Ceneralissimo Chiang Kai-shek,
President of the Republic of China,
Chungking, China.
sin comes H"
file
3-44
SECRET
8/17/44
Dear General Hurley:
You are hereby designated as my personal representative with
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, reporting directly to me. Mr. Donald
Nelson will assist you. Your principal mission is to promote efficient
and harmonious relations between the Generalissimo and General Stilwell
to facilitate General Stilwell's exercise of command over the Chinese
Armies placed under his direction. You will be charged with additional
and specific missions.
In carrying out your missions it is desired that you maintain
intimate touch with the U.S.Ambassador to China, keeping him advised
of your actions.