Roosevelt Papers: Telegram
The British Consul General at Barcelona (Farquhar) to the British Ambassador in Spain (Hoare)1
[Barcelona, August 5, 1943.]
Bearer of the communication2 requested that his name and mission be treated with the utmost secrecy.
- 2.
- In course of conversation he volunteered the statement that Italian Communist party had attempted to join this Committee of Action but had been more or less cold-shouldered, that if the present situation dragged on much longer conditions in Italy would become chaotic and grave disorder would ensue, but that Italian Army was still respected by mass of population, which had not been the case in 1921 and 1922. He mentioned that Mussolini was under surveillance in the fort of Boccea near Rome.
- 3.
- He also stated for reasons of safety the Committee had made no attempt to make contact through His Majesty’s Minister at the Vatican.3
- 4.
- He will remain here until further notice.
- 5.
- General impression which I derived from this conversation was that this so-called Committee of Action was prepared to turn out Badoglio Government and to instigate the Army to turn against the Germans but was powerless to act and perhaps too frightened to act without active support of armed forces of the Allies on the mainland [Page 565] of Italy. At the back of his mind was perhaps the fear that “honourable capitulation” with the possibility of lenient treatment no longer held good in view of failure of Badoglio Government to surrender promptly, mixed with the hope that the Committee, if it obtained recognition and support from the Allies, would succeed where Badoglio had failed.
- The text of this message was made available to the Department of State by the British Embassy at Washington, was delivered to the White House Map Room by the Department during the evening of August 6, 1943, and was forwarded by the Map Room to Roosevelt, who was then at Birch Island, Ontario, by telegram during the night of August 6–7.↩
- See the telegram printed supra. ↩
- Sir D’Arcy Osborne.↩