ISRAEL .                         783

that he would welcome this Government's support in carrying out his
task. Such support will, moreover, have a favorable effect upon our
relations with the Arab states, which strongly desire our assistance in
this matter. (Tab B.) It is therefore recommended that you sign the
attached draft telegram (Tab C), whiich is designed as a preliminary
and exploratory approach to this question.


501.BB Palestine/3-149
Memorandum     of Conrersation, by Mr. Stuart TV. Rockwell of the
                 Division of Near Eastern Affairs

CONFIDENTIAL                          [WAsHINGTON,] March 1, 1949.
Subject:   Status of Jerusalem
Participants: Mr. Tom Bromley, First Secretary, British Embassy
               NEA-Mr. Satterthwaite
               NE-Mr. Rockwell
  Mr. Bromley called at his request to leave the attached self-
explanatory memorandum concerning the status of Jerusalem.'
  After reading the memorandum we told Mr. Bromley that it would
not be possible for the Department at the present time to give the
Foreign Office a definite statement of this Government's final policy
regarding the status of Jerusalem. We said that the primary responsi-
bility for recommendations concerning the future status of the Holy
City has been placed upon the Palestine Conciliation Commission by
the United Nations, and that the Department was awaiting with inter-
est the Commission's recommendations in this regard. We said, how-
ever, that the Department could now assure the Foreign Office that the
United States Government supported the principle of the interna-
tionalization of the whole Jerusalem area, as set forth in the General
Assembly Resolution of December 11, 1948.
   We informed Mr. Bromley that the present trend of thinking on
 the working level in the Department was that in view of the financial

 Undated memorandum not printed. The Department of State summarized the
 memorandum in telegram 127, identified also as Unpal 44, March 3, 7 p. m.,
to
 Jerusalem, as follows: "FonOff has heard that USRep PCC, reflecting
US policy,
 taking strong line re internationalization Jerusalem. FonOff interested
know
 how far US will seek pursue this policy even against Israeli wishes. General
 policy H1MG support of internationalization but they do not feel it is for
them
 to restrict Abdullah from seeking whatever arrangement he thinks best. If
USG
 intends support internationalization firmly, above Brit attitude may lead
to
 divergence from US-French policy. 1-1MG also worried th'at view practical
diffi-
 cultie~s internationalization whole city, Israeli proposal will be adopted
that
 new city be part Israel and old city international. This totally unfair
to Trans-
 jordan and 11MG could not accept. 11MG could ,only support internationalization
 whole city." (501.BB Palestine/3-349)