740.0011 Moscow/10–1943

Draft Terms of Reference of the Advisory Council for Italy

Conference Document No. 10

(British Proposal)

An Advisory Council for Italy will be established forthwith, composed in the first instance of the High Commissioners for Italy of the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union and the French Committee of National Liberation. The High Commissioners will be assisted, where necessary, by service advisers. The Council will establish itself as soon as possible at the seat of the Headquarters of the Allied Commander-in-Chief.

The Council will keep itself closely informed of current Italian affairs and advise the Governments concerned in regard to problems relating to Italy. The members of the Council will be supplied by the three Governments and by the French Committee of National Liberation with all relevant information on political and military developments affecting their work, and they will in their turn report on local developments. They will make joint or several recommendations to the three Governments or to the Committee of Liberation, but [Page 712] will not have power to take final decisions They will not, of course, intervene in the military functions of the Allied Commander-in-Chief.

The Council will attend in particular to the operation of the machinery of control in Italy. Representatives of Greece and Yugoslavian will be added to the Council when such matters are under consideration.

The Council will advise the Allied Commander-in-Chief in his; capacity as president of the Allied Control Commission on general policy connected with the work of control. For this purpose it will maintain close touch with the Allied Commander-in-Chief and will’ have the right to ask him for information or explanations on matters affecting its work. It will also have access to the Allied Control Commission for Italy and to such other inter-Allied bodies, whether political, economic or military, as may be established, either for the purpose of ensuring the execution of the terms for Italy or by exercising supervision in the sphere of civil affairs.

The Allied Commander-in-Chief will continue as in the past to receive instructions from the United Kingdom and the United States Governments through the Combined Chiefs of Staff in Washington.

When, in the opinion of the Allied Commander-in-Chief, it is possible to bring direct military control of the Italian administration to an end, the Commander-in-Chief will relinquish the presidency of the Control Commission, and the Advisory Council for Italy will assume the direction of the work of the Control Commission on behalf of the Governments represented on it.