867N.01/8–946: Telegram
The British Prime Minister (Attlee) to President Truman 34
top secret
[London,] 9 August, 1946.
Personal and Top Secret. Thank you for your message35 which was passed to me by your Embassy yesterday morning.
- 2.
- I feel bound to express my great disappointment that you have not yet been able to accept the plan worked out with so much goodwill by the American and British experts as the best solution to this very difficult question. Meanwhile it has been necessary for us to make arrangements for the proposed conference with Jews and Arabs at the end of this month and I think that it may be useful to you to know what our present intentions are.
- 3.
- We have given very careful consideration to the plan of the American and British experts. We are convinced that this plan is in all the circumstances the best that can be devised and the most likely to lead to a settlement in Palestine. We believe further that [Page 678] it may be possible as part of this plan to introduce a substantial number of refugees from Europe into Palestine in the near future without disturbing the peace of the whole Middle East and imposing on us a military commitment which we are quite unable to discharge. We doubt whether there is any alternative plan which would offer the same prospect.
- 4.
- It is accordingly our intention, as was stated by the Government in the recent Parliamentary debate, to present the plan of the experts as the basis for negotiation at the conference. Given the support of your Government, we should be able to put the plan forward without modification. If however you continue to feel that you cannot accept the proposals as a joint Anglo-American plan and we have therefore to carry it into effect with our own resources alone, we shall present it to the Conference in a modified form. As we said in the debate to which I have referred, these modifications will relate particularly to the tempo and extent of Jewish immigration and Arab development.
- 5.
- I need hardly add that we shall give careful consideration to any suggestions you may have to make but I thought it only right that you should know our present intentions.
- 6.
- You will, I am sure, realise that we have to deal with the actual situation with all its difficulties and dangers. The lives of British, Jews and Arabs are imperilled and I more than hope that you may see your way clear to assist us in a final and permanent solution.