1564 FOREIGN RELATIONS, 1949, VOLUME VI

task as Chairman of the Economic Survey Mission to the Middle Kast.
At one point the President stated: “In accord with my previously
expressed intention to give careful consideration to such assistance as
we might appropriately render in carrying out the recommendations
of the survey mission, legislation is now in preparation for presenta-
tion to the Congress requesting authorization for this government to
assume its share j in the cost of the program proposed by the United
Nations for the Near East.”

The full text of the President’s statement 3 is printed in Department

of State Bulletin, J anuary 9, 1950, page 55.

 

867N.01/12-3049 : Telegram mo

President Truman t to Ka ing Abdullah Ibn el Hussein of the Hashemé te
mgdom of Jordan) —

SECRET oe ‘Wasuineton, December 80, 1949—6 p. m.

Your. Maszsrv: ‘I have received the letter? which Your Majesty
was good enough to send me through His Excellency Fawzi Pasha el
Mulki. I very much appreciate this expression.of Your Majesty’s views.
on a problem with which the United States Government has so long
been concerned. |

Your Majesty may be sure that this Government will continue to
give the closest attention to the Palestine question, in the constant hope
_ that an equitable settlement may be achieved.

It is my belief that the cause of peace in the Near East would be
greatly furthered if the states most directly concerned in the Palestine
dispute should find it possible to agree among themselves upon the
basic elements for a just settlement.

I send to Your Majesty the warm expression of my personal esteem

- and-my best. and most cordial wishes for the continued prosperity of

Your Majesty and of the Hashemite Kingdom of the J ordan i m 1 the :
forthcoming year.
| Harry S. TRUMAN

1 Sent to Amman in telegram 216, which instructed that the message be trans-
mitted to the King. The message was drafted in the Department of State and
. sent to Presisdent Truman by Secretary Acheson, with his memorandum of
December 29. The memorandum stated, in part, that: “y believe that it is-desirable
to avoid any commitment in replying to King Abdullah, but that in the interests
of a Palestine settlement it would be helpful to give indirect encouragement to
the King to continue the secret talks now going on between Jordan and Israel. .
The attached reply has been drafted with these points in mind.” President
Truman, in a marginal notation on December 30, approved the proposed reply
(S67N. 01 /12-3049).

* Dated November 5; see editorial note, p. 1470.