740.00116 European War 1939/1025
Memorandum by the Assistant Chief of the Division of European Affairs (Hickerson)
Mr. Michael Wright, First Secretary of the British Embassy, called me on the telephone at 4:45 this afternoon and referred to conversations with Mr. Dunn, Mr. Achilles and me on Thursday and Friday9 concerning the warning to neutral governments not to admit Mussolini and other Italian officials trying to escape from Italy. He said that the British Government had been very much pleased with the President’s statement of yesterday and with the word which we had given him that we had sent instructions to our diplomatic representatives in Stockholm, Ankara, Madrid, Lisbon, Bern, Vatican City and Buenos Aires quoting the text of the statement and instructing them, in concert with their British colleagues in all seven places, and also with their Soviet colleagues in Stockholm and Ankara, to bring the President’s statement to the attention of the governments to which they are accredited.
He said that the Embassy had just been informed that the British Government will publish in the British papers tomorrow morning news that the British Government has instructed its diplomatic representatives in those capitals to make representations on this subject to those governments. The representations will be along the line of the note on this subject which the British Ambassador handed to us on July 29. Mr. Wright said that their telegram stated that the [Page 463] Soviet Government was likewise publishing in the press tomorrow news that the Soviet Government was making representations on this subject in Stockholm and Ankara. He said that the British Government hoped that we would be disposed, if there was time, to let the press know that we had issued instructions to our diplomatic representatives in those seven places to bring the President’s statement to the attention of the governments to which they are accredited.
I called Mr. McDermott10 on the telephone and told him the foregoing. Mr. McDermott and I agreed that he would inform the correspondents that instructions had been issued to the American diplomatic representatives in those seven places to bring the President’s statement to the attention of the governments to which they are accredited. Mr. McDermott would add that the British Government had sent similar instructions to its representatives in all seven places and that he understood that the Soviet Government had similarly instructed its representatives in Stockholm and Ankara.