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    "localId": "269702344",
    "label": "Memorandum from President Harry S. Truman to Secretary of State Dean Acheson, with Attached Letter from Chaim Weizmann",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Memorandum from President Harry S. Truman to Secretary of State Dean Acheson, with Attached Letter from Chaim Weizmann",
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            "logicalDate": "1949-01-01",
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    "seq": 5,
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    "ocrText": "OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT\nRehovoth, 24th June, 1949\nDear Mr. President,\nThe Government of Israel have communicated to me the text of\nthe Note transmitted to them on your behalf on the 29th May, as well\nas their reply of June 8th. The matters raised in the Note are of such\ngravity that I feel impelled to address you personally on the subject.\nYou have throughout taken such a warm and helpful interest in the\naffairs of our young State that I am most anxiously concerned that you,\nour great and good friend, should be under no misapprehension regarding\nour position and intentions concerning the issues now at stake. I wish,\nindeed, it were possible for me to talk matters over personally with\nyou. That is always the best way of removing misunderstanding.\nWe have all been distressed at the slow progress made at\nLausanne. It may be that the device of a Conciliation Commission,\nconsisting not of officers of the U.N., but of delegates of three dif-\nferent countries, with different backgrounds and policies, was not the\nbest way of promoting a speedy settlement. It certainly appears to have\nbeen less effective than the mediation of one man pursued in the name of\nthe United Nations a S a whole. But be that as it may, we are trying our\nbest to work with this Commission and have submitted to them a number\nof proposals, to none of which we have so far received any reply from\nthe other side. Indeed up till now the Arab States have altogether\nrefused to sit with our delegates under the auspices of the Commission.\nWhen our Delegation first arrived in Lausanne on April 30th,\nthey immediately announced that they had come with full authorisation to\nnegotiate a comprehensive peace settlement with the delegates of the\nArab States covering all the matters referred to in the U.N. Resolution\nof llth December, 1948. They specifically stated that Israel was ready\nto contribute towards solving the Arab refugee problem in cooperation\nwith the United Nations and the Arab States. A few days later they sub-\nmitted to the Commission a draft preamble and t wo articles of a proposed\npeace treaty to serve as a basis for discussion. In this draft they\nproposed, among other things, the final liquidation of the war, the es-\ntablishment of normal political and economic relations between Israel and\nthe Arab States, mutual guarantees of the frontiers, abstention from the\nuse of force for the settlement of disputes, and international arbitration\nin case such disputes could not be settled by agreement.\nTo this day we have not received any reply to these basic\nproposals.\nComing to the question of the Arab refugees, our delegation\ngave repeated assurances to the Commission that Israel was ready to co-\noperate with the U.N. and the Arab States for a solution of the refugee\nfor\nNATIONAL\nATVES AND"
}