U.N Palestine mediator Count Folke Bernadotte has appealed to the United States for food and other relief supplies to aid in caring for Arab and Jewish refugees displaced by the fighting in Palestine.
State Department press officer Michael J. McDermott said today that Secretary of State George O. Marshall late yesterday received a message from Count Bernadotte describing the “desperate” plight of 330.000 Arab refugees and 7,000 Jewish refugees and asking that the U.S. send wheat, canned meat, butter, cheese and D.D.T. McDermott said no decision has yet been taken in the matter, but the Department is “working on it urgently.”
In his message to Secretary Marshall, Count Bernadotte asked: “Considering the extent and importance of your usual trade relationships with countries of the Middle East, including Palestine. will the Government of the United States assist to alleviate this sudden human disaster comparable to an earthquake or tidal wave by donating and diverting to me at Beirut or Aqaba 2,500 tons of wheat, 100 tons of canned moat, 50 tons of cheese, 50 tons of butter, and 20 tons of D.D.T., ten percent immediately from your supplies and 90 percent within three months at the latest?”
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