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Ambassador Henry Morgenthau's Special Mission of 1917

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2011

William Yale
William Yale
Affiliation:
University of New Hampshire
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Extract

Attempts to explain world politics in terms of the clashes of sharply defined national interests have an air of unreality. This is because of the unequal interest of groups of the population in any particular course of official action. The little known and obscure, but historically important episode with which this article deals, describes the impact of one influential private group on foreign policy, even after the President of the United States had made an official determination of policy. It also throws light on the way in which a private group can operate through and with a foreign government, whose interests are parallel to its own, to change the direction of American policy. Similarly it illustrates how a foreign government can mould its relations with the United States (or with most countries) by developing a policy with a special appeal to particularly influential groups in that country.

Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 1 , Issue 3 , April 1949 , pp. 308 - 320
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1949

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References

1 See below, conversation in 1920 between Dr. Chaim Weizmann and William Yale.

2 Weizmann, Chaim and Gottheil, Richard, What is Zionism? The Zionist Organization, London Bureau, 1918, p. 31.Google Scholar

3 Morgenthau, Henry (in collaboration with French Strother), AU in a Life-time, Garden City, N. Y., Doubleday, Page, 1923, p. 221.Google Scholar

4 Yale, William, Special Agent, Notes on the Zionist Question, Report to the Department of State, no. 10, Cairo, December 31, 1917.Google Scholar

5 Ibid.

6 Ibid.

7 Foreign Relations of the United States, The Lansing Papers, 1914–1920, 2 vols., Washington, 1939–40, vol. II, pp. 17–19.

8 Ibid.

9 Ibid.

10 Ibid.

11 Ibid.

12 Ibid.

13 Morgenthau, , op. cit., p. 255.Google Scholar

14 Unpublished Lansing Papers, II-B, Morgenthau, June 7, 1917, in Library of Congress; see also Lansing Papers, op. cit., vol. II, pp. 17–19.

15 Dugdale, Blanche E. C., Arthur James Balfour, 2 vols., London, 1936, vol. II, pp. 168–69.Google Scholar

16 New York Times, May 11, 1917.

17 Jeffries, J. M. N., Palestine: the Reality, London, 1939, p. 135.Google Scholar

18 Ibid., p. 154.

19 Editor's note: DrWeizmann's, Chaim autobiography, Trial and Error, New York, Harper & Bros., 1949Google Scholar, published after this article was written, confirms the fact that Dr. Weizmann received his information from Justice Brandeis. See p. 195.

20 See below, conversation between Dr. Chaim Weizmann and William Yale.

21 New York Times, June 17, 1917.

22 Ibid., June 20, 1917.

23 Foreign Relations of the United States, 1917, Supplement no. 2, 2 vols., Washington, 1932, vol. I, p. 108.

24 Unpublished Diary of Colonel E. M. House, entry of June 11, 1917.

25 Unpublished letters of Colonel E. M. House; letter to Honorable Henry Morgenthau, June 13, 1917.

26 Ibid.

27 Unpublished Diary of Colonel House, entry of June 11, 1917.

28 Ibid., entry of July 14, 1917.

29 Foreign Relations of the United States, 1917, Supplement no. 2, op. cit., vol. I, p. 109.

30 This meeting occurred after Mr. Balfour's return from the United States, hence sometime in June, 1917.

31 As Justice Brandeis, a leading Zionist, knew all about the trip, and as Mr. Morgenthau had told several Jewish leaders in New York, Dr. Weizmann would certainly have been informed by some of them about a matter so close to Zionist interests.

32 Foreign Relations oj the United States, 1917, Supplement no. 2, op. cit., vol. I, p. 109.

33 Ibid., p. 120.

34 Ibid., pp. 120–22.

35 Ibid.

36 Unpublished Diary of William Yale, Special Agent of the Department of State.

37 Evans, Roger, A Brief Outline of the Campaign of Mesopotamia, 1914–1918, London, 1926, pp. 120–21.Google Scholar

38 George, David Lloyd, War Memoirs of David Lloyd George, 6 vols., London, 1933–1936, vol. IV, pp. 1830–32.Google Scholar

39 Ibid., pp. 1834–35.

40 Ibid., vol. III, p. 1687.

41 Dugdale, , op. cit., vol. II, p. 167.Google Scholar

42 Ibid., p. 168.

43 Ibid., pp. 169–70.

44 Ibid., pp. 169–70.

45 Ibid., p. 154.

46 Foreign Relations of the United States, 1917, Supplement no. 2, op. cit., vol. I, p. 129.

47 Ibid., p. 129.

48 Ibid., pp. 130, 131.

49 Ibid., p. 127.

50 Ibid., p. 139; cable of July 20, 1917.

51 Unpublished Papers of Colonel E. M. House; notes on an interview with the President, July 13, 1917.

52 Ibid.

53 Unpublished Diary of Colonel House, op. cit.

54 Ibid.

55 New York Times, August 15, 1917.

56 Ibid., August 30, 1917.

57 Ibid., August 15, 1917.

58 Morgenthau, , op. cit., pp. 249–50.Google Scholar