740.0011 European War 1939/26811: Telegram
The Minister in Switzerland (Harrison) to the Secretary of State
[Received 6:14 p.m.]
6198. From Tittmann. 213, December 25. Reference my 208, December 11,209, December 14, and 211, December 20 [22]. My British colleague has informed me that he has received a telegram from London which has announced the Apostolic Delegate in London has approached the Foreign Office with a proposition from the Holy See to the effect that the Italians would be willing to remove military objectives from Rome in return for assurances on the part of the Allies that the city would not be bombed. Since both Osborne and myself had understood from the Cardinal Secretary of State that the action of the Italian Government to favor unilateral parity involved no proposition, that no reply was even expected, and that the removal was in fact already taking place, Osborne took the matter up again with the Cardinal yesterday and received confirmation that our understanding of the matter was the correct one. The Cardinal told Osborne that further instructions would be sent to Apostolic Delegate in London to rectify misapprehension upon which the Foreign Office telegram was apparently based. I am reporting the foregoing because I understand that the telegram in question was repeated to the British Ambassador in Washington with instructions to discuss the matter with the Department with a view to formulating a reply.
My own impression is that in approaching the Italian Government and ourselves the Holy See wished to do everything possible to protect Rome as the seat of the Church from devastation and to prepare way for a solemn protest on the part of the Pope in case the city is bombed. I hardly believe there was any intention of opening negotiations on the subject of bombing between Italy and the Allies through the intermediary of the Holy See. [Tittmann.]