867N.01/1920
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
Memorandum for the files in relation to the proposal to request a cessation of Jewish agitation in this country to the extent and in a manner calculated to create serious controversy in the Palestine area, and so operate to the serious detriment of the military situation.
A short while ago I had opportunity fully to examine this proposal. I sent it to the War Department with a statement that since this is primarily and essentially a military matter, it was the responsibility of the War Department to set out in writing the conditions of danger from such agitations that would create such a military exigency, or possibility of such exigency, as would move the War Department to [Page 803] request that such agitation in this country be desisted in, and that otherwise the State Department would, of course, have no function requiring it to take the initiative in the matter. I brought the matter up in a telephone conversation with Secretary Stimson and recited all the facts and circumstances which are essential.
On yesterday Secretary Stimson called me over the telephone and said he had investigated the matter, and had come to the conclusion that the security situation in Palestine was not so serious as to warrant any action from a military point of view, and that the War Department did not propose to take the matter up. I thanked him and said that ended it so far as the State Department is concerned. I added that for some months intimations had been coming from some persons or officials in the War Department in favor of such proposals; that I understood these intimations were based upon reports from military authorities in the Middle East and upon reports from our diplomatic and consular officers which had been made available to the War Department; and that they had apparently influenced some of my associates in the State Department.