740.0011 Moscow/51: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the President and the Acting Secretary of State (Stettinius)1

1704. DelAm No. 14.

Secret and personal for the President and the Acting Secretary from the Secretary

Following is our translation of the Soviet proposals presented at yesterdays meeting (reference DelAm 132) in regard to Italy which we have now received in written form.

“Proposal of the USSR in regard to Italy

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

II. The Soviet Government considers it also necessary in the interest of the intensification of the struggle against Hitlerite Germany to transfer immediately to the Soviet Union from the total number of more than 100 war vessels transferred to the Allies by reason of the capitulation of Italy following war vessels: one battleship, one cruiser, eight destroyers and four submarines to be dispatched right away to the northern ports of the Soviet Union and also 40,000 displacement tons of merchant ships out of the total of more than 150,000 displacement tons of ships which passed to the control of the Anglo-American armed [Page 113] forces as a result of the capitulation of Italy for immediate despatch to the Black Sea,”3

  1. Sent by the Ambassador, Moscow, in the numerical series of telegrams from the Embassy to the Department of State. A copy is in the Roosevelt Papers.
  2. In DelAm 13 (telegram 1693, October 22, 1943, midnight, from the Embassy at Moscow) Hull reported the presentation and discussion of the Soviet paper regarding Italy.
  3. In DelAm 13 Hull reported, with regard to this proposal as introduced by Molotov: “He justified this request by explaining that the Italian participation in the war against the Soviet Union had done incalculable damage to the Soviet Union and particularly to the Soviet naval and merchant fleet. Both Eden and I agreed, to submit this request immediately to our governments and urge upon them sympathetic consideration on an equitable and fair basis.”