Foreign Relations of the United States, Conferences at Washington and Quebec, 1943

Roosevelt Papers: Telegram

Prime Minister Churchill to President Roosevelt ¹

most secret
operational priority

London, 3 August 1943.

Prime Minister to President. Personal and most secret. Number 401.

Your number 342.² We have not yet received the proposed conditions and we ask that, as you assure us, we may be allowed to see them before decision is taken.

As at present informed we doubt the wisdom of declaring Rome an open city in the prevailing circumstance. We think piecemeal neutralization may be very dangerous at this juncture. We think it unwise to make things easier for the Italians before they have taken any decision to yield. Nor do we know, for instance, whether declaring Borne an open city now would preclude our using the communications through Rome, should it later fall into our possession, and thus destroy prospects of the campaign.

I must expect a serious reaction in British public opinion, and until we have seen the conditions, I beg that we may not be committed finally.

1. Channel of transmission to Washington not indicated. Forwarded by the White House Map Room to Roosevelt, who was then at Birch Island. Information copies were sent to Hull by the White House Map Room and by the British Ambassador (Halifax) on August 4, 1943 (740.0011 EW/8–443).
2. Supra.