740.0011 European War 1939/28234: Telegram
The Chargé in the United Kingdom (Matthews) to the Secretary of State
[Received 6:33 p.m.]
827. For the President and Secretary. Referring to my 382, January 15, I have just received the following letter from Eden:
“I wrote to you on the 17th December last to inform you of certain peace feelers which we had received from Italy. There has now been a [Page 321] further approach of which I think the United States Government might wish to hear.
One of our representatives in Switzerland learned through an intermediary that Marshal Badoglio is willing at the right moment to take over and establish a military government in Italy. He is in touch with Marshal Caviglia who would assist him in this project. Marshal Badoglio suggested that he should send an emissary, General Pesenti, to Cyrenaica to discuss coordinated action from outside and inside Italy aimed at the overthrow of the Fascist regime. Marshal Badoglio did not ask for any assurances regarding the future but only that General Pesenti should hold these discussions with us and that he should be given facilities for recruiting a force from among the Italians resident abroad and prisoners of war.
This proposal has been carefully considered but it is felt that the advantages likely to be derived from it are not sufficient to outweigh the disadvantages and the risks involved. There is clearly a serious danger that General Pesenti’s journey and the object of it might become known and the fact that we were treating with Italian Army leaders might be misunderstood. It was also considered that any force which General Pesenti might raise would be of little or no military value. The main disadvantage which we foresaw was that if General Pesenti came out of Italy, negotiations with him could not continue without some undertakings being entered into on our side—and we do not consider it advisable at this stage to commit ourselves to the support of any individual Italian without considerably more information regarding the degree of support which he could command inside Italy.
In these circumstances we have decided not make any response for the time being to Marshal Badoglio and Marshal Caviglia.
I am sending a similar letter to Monsieur Maisky.”