When Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin publicly announced on 14 February, 1947 that Britain would turn over the Palestine problem to the United Nations, the decision was not a sudden one.' Bevin had told the Cabinet in October 1945 that he proposed to do this, but that Britain would be accused of evading responsibilities if the government did not decide upon some course of action in Palestine before asking UN assistance.2 He wanted recommendations that would protect Britain's interests in the Middle East. These recommendations would have to be acceptable to the Arabs, and would require the support of the American government. Just before this discussion, President Harry S. Truman had asked Prime Minister Clement R. Attlee to admit 100,000 Jews to Palestine, and Attlee had refused, stressing that Britain alone was responsible for law and order in Palestine and warning that more Jews in Palestine would cause grave problems.3 The British government, however, was not indifferent to the plight of Jewish refugees.4 Faced with the three-sided problem of retaining Arab friendship, assisting Jews, and eliciting American support, Bevin had suggested to the Cabinet that an Anglo-American Inquiry be set up, to consider just how much immigration could be allowed into Palestine, and to look into the possibility of settling refugees in locations other than Palestine.5 Therefore, for the British government, the issue of transferring the Palestine Question to the United Nations had encouraged, at the outset, a discussion of what concretely Britain might do for Middle Eastern peace. The Cabinet agreed that an Anglo-American Committee was desirable because of growing agitation in the United States as well as Britain and other countries over the situation of the Jews in Europe, where many were living under extremely difficult conditions.6 Proposals for an Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry were presented to the American government in October 1945. No mention was made of Bevin's suggestion that such a committee might consider how much immigration could be allowed into Palestine.7 Secretary of State James F. Byrnes complained to the British Ambassador, Lord Halifax, about the absence of Palestine from the terms of reference of the proposed committee: 'Jews over here are not interested, apparently, in the plight of the Jews in Europe', he said. 'What they are interested in is they believe they ought to have a country to call their own.'8 Attlee visited Washington in November to attend the Anglo-American-Canadian conference on control of atomic energy, and at a private meeting with the president finally agreed that Palestine become the focus of the proposed Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry. The prime minister accepted the American point of view because he considered acceptance the only means of obtaining American participation.9 Bevin announced the committee in the House of Commons on 13