Weekly Report

[1] For immediately related texts, see 5/1, 5/5, 8/14, 11/22/44, 1/8, 1/12/45.

[2] For immediately related texts, see 1/3, 1/4, 1/9, 2/12, 4/12, 4/23/45.

[3] On this complaint, see Mitchell’s memorandum, “Current DFO War Department Cases,” 12/14/44, in which he lashes out at Truman Gibson. Regarding the complainant’s criminal record, see Gibson to Mitchell, 2/2/45, and the FDR of 2/23/45. HqR83, Correspondence Relating to Cases. (A–K) District Engineer, Miami, Florida.

[4] Both the Aramco and the Bechtel, McCone, and Parsons cases involved refusal to hire African Americans and Jews for assignments to the firms’ contracts in Saudi Arabia. Regional Director Leonard Brin told Maslow that Aramco felt that hiring blacks “would upset the entire Arabian economy,” that it would require building fifteen thousand houses for all Arabs who would demand equality with American Negroes, that their presence would impede the entire oil company development, and that all jobs are “potential foremen.” Brin’s telegram and related materials are in HqR83, Correspondence Relating to Cases. (A–K) American Arabian Oil (General).

At Mitchell’s request, John Davis conducted the investigation and reported:

I talked to Dr. [Ralph] Bunche, of the State Department, and with Dr. Walter L. Wright, head of the Historical Section of the U.S. Army. Dr. Bunche did not consider himself an authority, but his final opinion was almost the same as that of Dr. Wright.

Dr. Wright is the former president of Roberts College in Istanbul and a former professor of Asiatic History at Princeton University. In addition, before going to the War Dept., he was the head of OSS’s Near East Division. He has lived in the Near East for approximately 15 years and speaks Turkish, and Arabian, as well as French, Spanish and German.

He informed me that with proper management neither Negroes nor Jews should raise any problems in Saudi Arabia. Ibn Saud has taken a forthright position on Zionism and is one of the national leaders against the Zionist movement. In addition to that, the Jewish question in Arabia is now a subject of extreme tension because of the present political implications. But an American Jew would never be recognized by Arabians as being a Jew; he would be considered just another American. Most Jews with whom the Arabians are familiar are Yemenites and are extremely dark.

With regard to Negroes, most Negroes with whom the Arabs are familiar are slaves, having been brought to Saudi Arabia as the result of the Abysynnian slave forays against U’ganda. These slaves, however, are not slaves in the American sense, since they operate as body servants and as major domos for their masters. Many of them operate as statesmen and have achieved positions of national importance. It is quite customary for them to give orders to Arabs. Furthermore, the Arabians have absolutely no race consciousness and inter-marriage is quite a common thing. (Davis to Mitchell, memorandum, 1/13/45, HqR38, Central Files. [entry 25] Memoranda, Mitchell, Clarence).

Evelyn Cooper confirmed Davis’s report. Cooper to Johnson, memorandum, 2/22/45. Mitchell, on 2/23/45, then told Cooper that he had been informed that Aramco had no contracts with the government. In effect, that meant the FEPC had no jurisdiction over it. These and related materials are in HqR83, Correspondence Relating to Cases. (A–K) American Arabian Oil (General).