867N.01/10–2744: Telegram
The Chargé in Syria (Satterthwaite) to the Secretary of State
[Received 12:55 p.m.]
30. The Syrian public and press are expressing increasing alarm over statements of Roosevelt, Dewey and other American statesmen advocating a Jewish Commonwealth and unrestricted immigration into Palestine as American electoral campaign draws to its close. Former students of the American University at Beirut and of American universities now holding prominent positions are particularly disturbed and have taken the lead in organizing an association to carry on counter-propaganda in defense of Arab cause in Palestine. According to reliable reports a demonstration in protest will be held in Damascus, November 2, the anniversary of Balfour Declaration.
The Syrian Government itself has not as yet made any new official démarche (see my 17, August 3) presumably because of its preoccupation with more immediate political problems but is the subject of some criticism for its failure to do so.
The press is giving increasing prominence to this question and has published conspicuously the various declarations of American statesmen defending Zionism and particularly the decision of Arab Chamber of Commerce in Palestine to boycott the Culbertson Mission. Practically all local newspapers are devoting their daily editorials to the subject in which they repeat the various arguments previously reported and note especially their disillusionment at the alleged disregard of Arab rights in Palestine by American politicians for the purpose of winning votes. They repeatedly assert that the principles of the Atlantic Charter and the Four Freedoms are thus being utterly disregarded and ask why the Arabs should be the ones made to suffer as a result of German persecution of the Jews. The editorials also assert that these American statements are encouraging the terrorists in Palestine.
Inasmuch as most of the editorial comment gives favorable mention to the British position regarding Palestine there is a belief on the part of some well-informed Syrians that the campaign against the United States is receiving the active encouragement of the British press authorities.