The Chairman of the Soviet Council of People’s Commissars ( Stalin ) to President Roosevelt 12

[Extract—Translation]13

Your message in which you touched upon several important questions I received on September 6th.

[Page 785]

First. I still consider, as I did before, that the question of the creation of the Military-Political Commission of the representatives of the three countries with its residence at the beginning in Sicily or in Algiers is the most urgent one. Sending of a Soviet officer to the Staff of General Eisenhower can by no means substitute for the Military-Political Commission, which is necessary for directing on the spot the negotiations with Italy (as well as with other countries dissociating themselves from Germany). Much time has passed, but nothing is done.

As to the participation of the French representative in this Commission, I have already expressed my opinion on this subject. However, if you have any doubt, in this case this question can be discussed after the Commission is created.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

  1. Copy of telegram obtained from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N.Y.; it was transmitted by the Soviet Chargé in the United States, Andrey Andreyevich Gromyko.
  2. Other portions of this message are printed on p. 519 and in Foreign Relations, The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943, pp. 2324.