Governor General Mohammad Ali Jinnah of Pakistan to President Truman 

(A letter written by the First Governor-General of Pakistan, Quid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, dated 08 December 1947)

Governor General Mohammad Ali Jinnah of Pakistan to President Truman 1

At this hour when the Muslim world has received a terrible shock owing to the most unfortunate decision of the United Nations Organization to enforce the partition of Palestine, I would like to address to you, Mr. President, this personal appeal.

2. The decision is ultra vires of the United Nations charter and basically wrong and invalid in law.

3. Morally it is untenable. Political, historically, geographically, and practically it would be impossible to enforce partition against the united resistance of the Arabs who have the full sympathy and support of over three hundred million Mussalmans and many non-Muslim countries and not only those who voted against the UNO decision.

4. In the long run it will and must fail. The very people for whose benefit this decision is taken—the Jews, who have already suffered terribly from Nazi persecution—will I greatly fear, suffer most if this unjust course is pursued. Moreover, the decision presents a great danger to world peace.

5. May I therefore, at this eleventh hour, appeal to you and through you to the great and powerful American nation, which has always stood for justice, to uphold the rights of the Arab race. The government and the people of America can save this dangerous situation by taking the correct lead and thus avoiding the gravest consequences and repercussions.

6. May I, Mr. President, release this telegram to the press with your permission.

Note 1

Transmitted to the Department by the Chargé in Pakistan in telegram 198 December 9, 1947, at 1 p.m., with this introduction: “In a letter dated December 8, Secretary Foreign Affairs has requested me to transmit following message from Governor General Jinnah to President Truman and asks Department deliver copy Ambassador Ispahani his information (verbatim text):”.

Prof. Engr. Zamir Ahmed Awan Founder & Chair, Global Silk Route Research Alliance

Zamir Ahmed Awan is the founder and Chair of the Global Silk Route Research Alliance, a think tank in Islamabad. He studied engineering at Shanghai University in the 1980s, and years later he went back to China as Pakistan's science counsellor in Beijing, from 2010 until 2016, working on science and higher education cooperation between the two countries.…

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