867N.55/212

The Department of State to the British Embassy

Memorandum

The Department of State is in principle willing that its officers in charge of British interests serve, as indicated in the British Embassy’s memorandum of November 11, 1940, as a medium of transmission for the delivery of immigration certificates to children up to fifteen years of age whose admission into Palestine is contemplated by the British authorities. It is understood that the Department’s officers will not be called upon to act in a manner requiring interpretation or enforcement of the Palestine immigration law but will merely receive the certificates referred to for delivery to children specifically designated by the Palestine Government upon establishment of their identity and production of certificates of good health. The Department will, of course, instruct its officers to ascertain in advance that the appropriate local authorities entertain no objections before they proceed to act in the manner just outlined.

The Department assumes that it will in due course be informed if the British Government determines to put the contemplated arrangement into effect and that it will be given such general indications of the details of procedure which the British Government wishes observed as will enable the issuance to the Department’s officers in charge of British interests of uniform instructions intended for their guidance.