Truman Did Not Send Formal Plan on Palestine to Britain, White House Announces

President Truman has not sent any formal plan on Palestine to the British Government, White House press secretary, Charles G. Ross, emphatically said today.

Asked about news reports from London attributing to the Foreign Office the announcement of receipt of a plan from President Truman, Ross feelingly commented that he was not responsible for statements of London officials.

Denying reports that the President had forwarded to London a counter-proposal on partition of Palestine, Ross categorically stated that Mr. Truman had merely made some suggestions to facilitate the continuing and constant negotiations between the United States and British Governments. He assailed what he called “the irresponsible statements, gossip and false rumors” which have been circulating about President Truman’s supposed intentions, pointing out that they do not contribute to a highly explosive situation.

Ross declined to comment about further London reports that the President had rejected the British federalization plan. The President will take no action on the Palestine situation before his departure tomorrow for a seventeen-day vacation cruise in New England, it was authoritatively learned.

TRUMAN SUBORDINATES PARTITION TO IMMEDIATE ADMISSION OF 100,000 JEWS

The immediate resumption of immigration to Palestine and issuance of certificates for the 100,000 displaced European Jews is the keystone of President Truman’s policy. He is known to have turned down the British-Grady recommended partition plan scarcely veiling his displeasure with its authors.

Any proposal for partition of Palestine must, in his opinion, be subordinated to the immigration conditions. The President is emphatically supported in this approach by, among others, Secretary of the Treasury John Snyder and Secretary of War Robert Patterson, two members of the Cabinet Committee on Palestine, by Postmaster General Robert W. Hannegan, who is chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and Paul Fitzpatrick, New York State Democratic chairman, and by Secretary of Commerce Henry A. Wallace.

BELIEVES BRITISH INDIFFERENCE TO HIS REQUESTS INVOLVES PRESTIGE OF U.S.

The President realizes that execution of a partition plan would entail a lengthy period, possibly even a year, and would mean the appointment of a boundary commission with attendant surveys and delays. He sees no reason for holding up the transfer, in the meantime, of the 100,000 Jews from what he considers their desperate life in displaced persons camps, to those areas in Palestine which are not in dispute. This point has been hammered at repeatedly in cables between Washington and London.

BRITISH LEAKS OF INFORMATION WILL NOT FORCE PRESIDENT’S HAND

Evidence of British good faith, in the view of those in a position to know the President’s feelings, would be immediate issuance of the 100,000 certificates to the Jewish Agency, with subsequent negotiation on the type of partition. Attempts to commit the President through Foreign Office use of the well-known “leak” of information will not force his hand, it was indicated. On the contrary, resenting this type of pressure, he has been strengthened in his determination to insist on his primary conditions regarding immigration.

Aside from the mandatory aspects of the British loan, the executive has the power to scrutinize requests for specific sums as they are received. Reluctant as he would be to exercise the permissive functions allowed by the loan, he might, it is thought, find himself forced to this conclusion if some early promise of performance by the British Government were not forthcoming.

The President feels it his duty, as part of the democratic process, to take into account in the negotiations on Palestine, the views of American Jewry. The Jewish Agency plan presented last week by Dr. Nahum Goldmann is known to have impressed the Cabinet Committee. So far as the President is concerned, he feels the question of the immigration certificates is paramount.