Reuter[s] announces the message in my immediately following. Can this be true?
Prime Minister Churchill to President Roosevelt1
secret
London, 3 March 1944.
600. Prime Minister to President Roosevelt. Personal and most secret.
Reference my immediately preceding telegram. Washington Friday from Reuter[s]. Time of receipt 1720 3rd March. Msg begins: [Page 876]
- President Roosevelt today announced that Italian warships are ready to be sent to the Russian Navy. Discussions for transferring roughly ⅓ of the Italian Fleet to Russia, the President said, were about half completed.
- President Roosevelt said that the U. S. and Britain are already using some Italian tonnage. Efforts are now being made to determine how many of these ships or their equivalent can be turned over to the Russian Navy. Marshal Stalin had raised the question through his Ambassador in Washington.
- President Roosevelt stressed that so long as the war lasted the Allies will use everything afloat against the enemy. After the war something more permanent would have to be decided. Asked whether the ships would be manned by Italians, the President replied that some may and some may not. Italian ships which had escaped to the Ballearic [Balearic] Islands, he said, were a Spanish problem.
- President Roosevelt explained that since Italy surrendered to the U. S., Britain and Russia, it was thought advisable to distribute the Italian Fleet roughly on the basis of ⅓ each. He would not say how much tonnage was involved.
- Sent by the United States Military Attaché, London, via Army channels.↩