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

740.00119 European War 1939/1630

The Secretary of State to the Presidents Chief of Staff (Leahy)

secret

[Washington,] September 4, 1943.

My Dear Admiral Leahy: I transmit for your consideration a copy of a note¹ submitted to the Department by the Greek Embassy, under date of August 13, 1943, containing the request of the Greek Government that:

1) Greece be represented on the Armistice Delegation to be set up in connection with the anticipated surrender cf Italy; and

2) The Armistice terms provide “for the immediate evacuation of Italian military and civil authorities of all territories claimed by Greece and for the delivery of these territories to Greek authorities”, or, in the absence of Greek authorities, that these territories be “provisionally left in care of Allied authorities”. Specific mention was made, in this connection, of the Dodecanese Islands and of Northern Epirus (Southern Albania).

Some of the points raised in the Embassy’s note have subsequently been disposed of by the joint communication made to the Greek Prime Minister by the British and American Ambassadors on August 29, 1943,² regarding the instrument to be signed in connection with the possible unconditional surrender of Italy. The Greek reply to this communication, a copy of which is also attached, empowers the Allied Commander-in-Chief to sign the proposed instrument on behalf of Greece and indicates that the Greek Government desires to have a representative present at the time of signature ….

Sincerely yours,

Cokdell Hull

1. The Embassy’s note No. 1962 of August 13, 1943 (740.00119 European War 1939/1722) is not printed, but its contents are summarized in a memorandum of conversation dated August 14 by the Chief of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs (Ailing) printed in Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. ii p. 350.
2. Not printed. For a parallel notification to the Yugoslav Government in exile, see Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. ii, pp. 357–359. Similar communications were made to the governments of the Soviet Union, the British Dominions, China, Brazil, and Ethiopia, and to the French Committee of National Liberation. See ibid., pp. 355–357, 359. These notifications related to the “long” terms of surrender sent to Eisenhower on August 26, 1943, ante, p. 1161.