Office of the Historian

740.00119 EW/8–1743: Telegram

The British Consul General at Tangier (Gascoigne) to the British Foreign Office 1

most secret
Tangier, August 17, 1943.

I spoke to Berio this afternoon. He said that he would immediately convey the information to Rome but he seemed anxious that it should be made quite clear to you that the question asked by him as set forth in paragraph 4 of my telegram of August 14th* (to which your telegram of August 16th gave reply†) was put as from him himself and did not emanate as such from Marshal Badoglio. He furthermore wished to make it clear that his mission here was only so far one of contact and that he had not as yet received any precise instructions from home as regards negotiation.

[Page 596]
2.
Signor Berio at least now understands the procedure to be adopted by his Government prior to their obtaining an armistice but he explained that he (personally) could not see how the Marshal could carry out the terms likely to be imposed by us. Immediately the Marshal tried to do so he (Berio) considered the Germans who were all round the Marshal and his Government would put them in prison and form a Government of their own (Quisling or purely German).
3.
Berio also again referred to the Marshal’s necessity for time which I countered by demonstrating to him that obviously every hour of delay would be disastrous for Italy and that it would in my opinion become more and more difficult for the Marshal to capitulate the longer he hesitated about it.
4.
Finally Berio, after fishing for particulars regarding surrender terms, asked me whether any approaches had been made to us by the Italian Government agents in places other than Lisbon and Tangier. I thought it more prudent to say I had no information on this point.
5.
Signor Berio made a good impression at this our second interview and I have as yet no reason to distrust him.
  1. Printed from a copy made available to the Department of State by the British Embassy at Washington.↩
  2. Enclosed in Sir R. Campbell’s letter to Mr. Hull of August 14th. [Footnote in the source text. For the telegram of August 14 referred to, see ante, p. 585.]↩
  3. Enclosed in Sir R. Campbell’s letter to Mr. Hull of August 17th. [Footnote in the source text. The telegram referred to is printed supra.]↩