Roosevelt Asked to Consult with Churchill in Quebec on the Palestine Question

Congressman Emanuel Celler of New York today made public a letter which he addressed to President Roosevelt urging him to take up with the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the Quebec conference the question of the Jewish National Home in Palestine. The Congressman also emphasized that he intends to ask for a Congressional inquiry of the activities of three officials of the State Department “unless the State Department ceases its absurd opposition to Palestine as a haven for the Jews.”

“There are those in our State Department,” Celler Wrote the President, “who would encourage violation by Britain of her solemn obligations, which violation would prevent the trek of Jews to Palestine, there to re-establish a Lordgiven homeland. Justice precludes your inaction, pity demands your intercession. Humanity dictates your words of caution to Prime Minister Churchill, now visiting with you.”

Mr. Celler named Brig. Gen. Patrick Hurley, special envoy to the Middle East; Harold Hoskins, formerly executive assistant to Assistant Secretary Adolf A. Berle, Jr., Wallace Murray, an adviser on political relations as among those “who have contributed their bit to the betrayal of Palestine.”

“Hurley has been wined and dined by the self-alleged friend of the Allies, King Ibn Saud, and has contracted thereby a severe case of myopia, capable of focusing his vision in the one direction only as indicated by his host,” Mr. Celler charged. “Mr. Hoskins, likewise, sees only what he wants to see. He is not without his pet theories and while true he has spent considerable time in the Near East, he, apparently, cannot see the forest for the trees. In the fold is Wallace Murray, ardent admirer of the King of Italy.

“Unless steps are taken to provide a just solution to the question,” Celler wrote, “inquiry into the activities of Hurley et al doubtless will be established in the Senate or the House, jointly or separately. Such an inquiry is already being contemplated by the Senate. Unless solution be on its way and unless the State Department ceases its absurd opposition to Palestine as a haven for the Jews. I shall offer such a resolution myself.”