Roosevelt Papers: Telegram
Prime Minister Churchill to President Roosevelt1
secret
London, 7 March 1944.
No. 608. Prime Minister to President Roosevelt personal and most secret. About the Italian ships.
- 1.
- I have never agreed nor have you ever asked me to agree to a division of the Italian Fleet into 3 shares. If this claim were to be based on the fact that we 3 Powers signed the Italian Armistice together, what about all the other Powers that fought Italy? Greece for instance would have an irrefutable claim. It was not until after the Cairo conference that I heard you had mentioned about the ⅓ for Russia. Averell was however able to assure you that nothing of the sort had been said to the Russians. See your number 437.2 You are therefore quite uncommitted so far as they are concerned.
- 2.
- His Majesty’s Government would not be able to agree to a division of the Italian Fleet by ⅓ or a pro rata division among signatories to the Armistice.…
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
- 5.
- At the Moscow conference the Russians asked for certain specified
types of Italian ships, namely
- 1 Battleship
- 1 Cruiser
- 8 Destroyers
- 4 Submarines
- and 40,000 tons of merchant shipping.
At Teheran we assented to this.…