867N.01/1–1349
Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by the Director of the Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs (Satterthwaite)
Subject: Anglo-Israeli Difficulties
| Participants: | Mr. Eliahu Epstein, Special Representative of the Provisional Government of Israel |
| Mr. Joseph C. Satterthwaite, NEA |
Mr. Epstein phoned to say that Mr. Lovett had requested him to repeat to me the message which he had just given him following the receipt of instructions to do so from Tel Aviv. He had, of course, at once telegraphed his Government the purport of Mr. Lovett’s suggestion to him yesterday that it would be unwise for the PGI to press the Security Council to act on its letter to the SC complaining against British actions in the Palestine area. Mr. Epstein had apparently recommended that the PGI would be wise to follow this suggestion.
The telegram which he has received from Tel Aviv is to the effect that the PGI agrees with Mr. Lovett’s proposal and will not press for the introduction of a resolution in the SC1 unless some new British act of provocation should compel them to reconsider their present position. He added that his Government had full confidence in the course the State Department had been pursuing recently.
Mr. Epstein expressed his personal thanks for the contribution which he considered the State Department had been making during the past few days to a solution of this difficult problem.
- The Department of State, on January 14, advised Tel Aviv of its gratification at being informed by Mr. Epstein that the Provisional Government of Israel had decided not to press the matter before the Security Council (telegram 31, 501.BB Palestine/1–1449).↩