740.0011 European War 1939/28660
The British Embassy to the Department of State
Aide-Mémoire
Reference is made to the Department’s memorandum 740.0011 European War 1939/28556 of March 5th9 on the subject of propaganda to Italy.
The proposal in Mr. Hull’s telegram has been considered by His Majesty’s Government who find themselves in full agreement with the proposals contained therein. In their view it is important to distinguish between the policy to be pursued up to the moment of the invasion of Italy and the policy to be pursued after that period. In the first period a firm line should be followed, without any promises, and the following four points of Mr. Hull’s formula should be the basis of our joint propaganda:—
- 1.
- We should lose no opportunity to point out the hopelessness of Italy’s present position in the war to the Italian people.
- 2.
- The war against Italy should be pursued by attacking by land and sea and air upon all possible occasions and with all possible force.
- 3.
- By all possible means passive resistance and sabotage of the Italian war effort should be encouraged.
- 4.
- Appeals to premature revolt or ridicule of the Italian armed forces or the Italian people should be avoided.
Immediately before invasion takes place, and for the period succeeding the assault, this line should be modified to the extent of holding out some ray of hope to the Italians about their future, the Allies being presented in the guise not of conquerors but of liberators. Mr. Hull’s fifth point should then be added, as follows:—
- 5.
- We should inform the people of Italy that neither we nor our Allies have territorial ambitions concerning territory which is essentially Italian, and we should hold out hope that Italy will survive as [Page 325] a nation after the defeat of the Fascist Government, without making any specific territorial commitments.
- Not printed, but see telegram No. 889, supra.↩