Office of the Historian

Roosevelt Papers

The President to the Secretary of State

Washington, August 30, 1943.

Memorandum for the Secretary of State

I think you should talk this over with General Marshall.1 Does it need a reply? My first reaction is that it is not satisfactory in that it allows a “mere transit line” to go through Rome—and it is of the highest military importance that this transit line be eliminated.

F[ranklin] D. R[oosevelt]
  1. Roosevelt was referring to the memorandum of August 25, 1943, from the Apostolic Delegation to the Department of State printed ante, p. 1175.↩