340.1115A/2293
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State (Long)
The Italian Ambassador41a came in this morning at his own request. He said that he had communicated to his Government the proposal which had been made to him in regard to the exchange of Italians in this country to return to Italy and that his Government had agreed to accept the proposal on the conditions that all of the Italians interned at Missoula42 and those which were serving jail sentences as a result of the prosecutions for sabotage on Italian vessels be included.43
I told the Ambassador that we had hoped that his Government would not impose conditions; that it made it much more difficult to work out when conditions were imposed; that it was my hope to exchange categories irrespective of the numerical strength in each category; [Page 428] and that I had not yet heard from the German Government and would await a word from them.
I called the Ambassador’s attention to the fact that there were a great many Italians and very few British and practically no Americans of military age so that the conditions placed by his Government might not be considered reasonable. I suggested that perhaps his Government would recede from that extreme position and he said that he would, of course, telegraph to his Government any proposal, even one which would be less comprehensive than the maximum indicated by the Italian Government’s response.
I told the Ambassador I would keep him advised of the developments.