The petition to the Federal Council of Churches in the U.S. and the World Council of Churches in Geneva was signed by Jones, Ovid Sellers of McCormick Theological Seminary and the American School of Oriental Research, an American on the staff of the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, and the secretary-treasurer of the American Colony in Jerusalem. The telegram read:
We regard it as our inescapable duty to place before our fellow Christians in the United States the appalling facts of the Palestine Arab Refugee Problem during the last six months; virtually half of the non-combatant Arabs of Palestine have become displaced persons, houses wrecked beyond repair and whole communities reduced to destitution. It is estimated that 200,000 Palestinian Arabs who have taken refuge in the adjacent Arab countries are penniless. These countries have met the demands of their guests generously and resourcefully, only to find that their own slender resources are approaching exhaustion. Still more obvious is the lot of the 200,000 or more refugees who have remained within the borders of Palestine. If the Truce ends in a final peace, they will go home to bare fields, looted houses, and a shattered economy. If the Truce ends in a renewal of war, their miseries will be multiplied. Whatever happens, they now possess nothing but the clothes they stand up in and a courage that will respond eagerly to any promise of return to normal life. This drifting multitude, close to half a million in number, is in desperate need of organized help. An International Agency, suitably equipped and liberally supported, must take charge at once. Can the Federal Council take immediate steps to spread the knowledge of this need and to promise the required aid?
