740.0011 European War 1939/31288
The Under Secretary of State (Welles) to the Apostolic Delegate (Cicognani)
My Dear Archbishop Cicognani: I have received this morning your letter of August 71 in which you inform me that you have just received from His Eminence the Cardinal Secretary of State a radiogram urgently requesting a definitive reply to his previous message2 advising of the decision of the new Italian Government to declare Rome an open city. You add that you will be grateful for anything that I can do to expedite the securing of the desired response so that you may be in a position to report such reply to the Cardinal Secretary of State.
As I informed Your Excellency in my letter of August 4,3 the message under reference was immediately submitted by me to the highest authorities of the Government of the United States. The matter is receiving their fullest consideration.
In the meantime I am instructed by the President4 to state that, in accordance with the accepted principles of international law and of pertinent international agreements, there is nothing to prevent the Italian Government from undertaking unilaterally to declare Rome an open city.
With the assurances [etc.]
- Not printed (740.0011 European War 1939/31288).↩
- See ante, p. 528.↩
- See ante, p. 528, fn. 3.↩
- After consultation with Hull, Welles had submitted a draft of this letter to Roosevelt, who was then en route from Birch Island to Washington, for the latter’s approval earlier on August 8 (740.0011 European War 1939/31288). Roosevelt’s approval had been communicated by telegram to the White House, which had notified Welles by telephone (id./31289).↩