Acting Secretary of State Dean Acheson today denied charges by Bartley C. Crum., member of the former Anglo-American inquiry committee, that “middle level” State Department officials have frustrated Presidential policy on Palestine. He said that if there is any fault in this matter, which he does not believe, the criticism should be directed against him.
Asked at a press conference about the charges, Mr. Acheson said that all the officials concerned work under his direct and immediate guidance. He very much regretted, he said, that Crum should have levelled the charges at officials under him and not at him.
Declaring that the Department had no statement to make, Acheson said that he wished to comment on part of the charges, but did not desire to be drawn into a discussion with Mr. Crum on the whole gaunt. He restricted himself, Acheson declared, to Crum’s assertion that the policy of the President is being frustrated.
He said that for one year it has been his responsibility to see that the Department of State carries out all the wishes of the President and the Secretary of State. If the State Department does not do this, he continued, the fault is his, and he is not fit to continue in office.
He emphasized that in the matter of Palestine all the officials concerned work under his immediate direction and that he has carried to them all the instructions of the President and Secretary of State, and that they have loyally executed the orders which he gave them.
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