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0+2 SECRET DECLASSIFIED E. O. Dept. 11652, of Sec. 3(E) and 5(D) or (E) State letter, By NARS MEMORANDUM The power of the President to send American troops to Palestine At the present time Palestine is a mandated territory under the tute- lage of the British Government. The nature of the mandate is indicated by the following excerpts from Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations (Hackworth, Digest of International Law, Vol. 1, p. 103): "To those colonies and territories which as a consequence of the late war have ceased to be under the sovereignty of the States which formerly governed them and which are inhabited by peoples not yet able to stand by themselves under the stremi- ous conditions of the modern world, there should be applied the principle that the well-being and development of such peoples form a sacred trust of civilisation and that securities for the performance of this trust should be embodied in this Covenant. "The best method of giving practical effect to this prin- ciple is that the tutelage of such peoples should be entrusted to advanced nations who by reason of their resources, their ex- perience or their geographical position can best undertake this responsibility, and who are willing to accept it, and that this tutelage should be exercised by them as Mandatories on be- half of the League. "The character of the mandate must differ according to the stage of the development of the people, the geographical situa- tion of the territory, its economic conditions and other simi- lar circumstances. "Certain communities formerly belonging to the Turkish Empire have reached a stage of development where their exis- tence as independent nations can be provisionally recognised subject to the rendering of administrative advice and assis- tance by a Mandatory until such time as they are able to stand alone. The wishes of these communities must be a principal consideration in the selection of the Mandatory." The United States Government, however, has asserted through its exe- cutive branch an interest in Palestine and other mandated territories, its