867N.01/2056
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State (Long)
Dr. Nahum Goldmann13 came to see me today at his own request. He took up with me several matters relating to the Jewish difficulties and then gave me the following information:
Dr. Weizmann in London had been in direct contact with the Prime Minister. The meeting was arranged through General Smuts14 who [Page 823] has long been a friend of Zionism. At the conference Mr. Churchill stated that he had not changed at all in his attitude toward Zionism. He had not changed at all in his attitude toward the White Paper. He was certain that some adjustment of the matter should be made. It was a question of timing. The question was presented further whether some change of policy should be made during the war or whether the matter should be postponed for determination after the war. That was a question which had to be decided but the fact that there must be a change of British policy in Palestine was definite in his mind.
Furthermore the present British representative in Palestine had not been friendly to the Jewish cause. It had been decided that when his term expired next May he would not be reappointed. Dr. Weizmann had been assured to that effect by the Prime Minister.
- Dr. Goldmann was at this time head of an office which had been established in Washington by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, to which the Department had accorded no recognition; see memorandum by the Adviser on Political Relations, May 26, p. 787.↩
- Jan Christian Smuts, Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa.↩