Office of the Historian

President Roosevelt to the Secretary of State 37

Washington, 30 October 1943—6 p.m.

302232. Personal for Secretary Hull. Alusna Moscow 301042.38 I am very much surprised about Molotov’s misunderstanding of my message of October 26 relative to disposition of Italian naval ships and merchant ships. I meant to convey that I was in favor of the request of the Russian Government for the use of these ships. The only proviso I made was that the Italian ships which were turned over to our respective countries would be used to prosecute the war against our enemies and that final determination of what would become of these ships would be made at the peace conference.39

Roosevelt
  1. Copy of telegram obtained from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N.Y. For text of what apparently was an earlier draft of this message, see Foreign Relations, The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943, p. 127.↩
  2. October 30, 10:42 a.m., p. 672.↩
  3. A memorandum numbered “White 13”, and dated “30 Oct 43”, with the heading “For the President from the Map Room,” in the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, states that “This message was prepared by Mr. Hopkins, was approved by Admiral Leahy, and has been sent to Secretary Hull.”↩