Message from Prime Minister Clement Attlee to President Harry S. Truman, with Related Material

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DECLASS.F. E. O. 11652, Sec. 3(E) and S(D) or (4) SIGNAL CENTER Dept. of State letter, 7-15-75 SEGRET F.R OF us 1946 VUE in PAGE 643 THE WHITE HOUSE By NLT- HC : NARS Date/11-24-75 4 July 1946 From: Prime Minister Attlee To : The President 3. AND Nr : 3025 (041040Z) = FERVICE Personal and Top Secret. I note from your telegram of 2nd July that the representatives of your Cabinet Committee plan to leave for London on 13th July to begin the second stage of the discussions on the Palestine report. I am increasingly concerned about the timetable of these discussions in relation to our parliamentary situation here. I have promised that the House of Commons shall have an opportunity to debate the Palestine problem before Parliament rises for the summer recess on 2nd August. Parliamentary interest in this question is so keen that I could not deny facilities for this debate. But you will realize that in such a debate I shall be placed in an embarrassing position if no further progress has been made towards an agreement between our two Governments on at least the main recommendations of the report. It would certainly be very difficult to conduct such a debate in Parliament here while the discussions between officials of the two Governments were still proceeding in London. I am also concerned about the effect in Palestine of delaying much longer a decision on the important issues dealt with in the report. We have also to take into account the notification from the Arab states that, unless some arrangement satisfactory to them has been reached meanwhile, they will bring this matter forward at the meeting of the Assembly of the United Nations in September. - 1 -