740.0011 European War 1939/30341: Telegram

The Ambassador in the United Kingdom ( Winant ) to the Secretary of State

4862. Personal for the President and the Secretary. This afternoon in talking with Eden I found there were two opinions in the Foreign Office in relation to the Italian situation.

1.
That the change-over37 was due to a last desperate attempt to strengthen the war effort.
2.
The dominant opinion and that held by Mr. Eden which he described as “A mixture of the policies adopted by Prince Max von Baden38 and Pétain39 on their way to quitting”. He felt that neither Mussolini nor General Badoglio could make the Italians fight.

He said one thing which I believe is important. That Russia in some way should be brought into our councils in considering the Italian situation. He felt that the Russian manifesto to Germany might have been in part influenced by their not having been included as signatories to the Anglo-American proclamation to the Italian people.40 He did not mean by this that he thought they should have been included as a practical matter but only that they were sensitive to exclusion.

When the tide turns and the Russian armies are able to advance we might well want to influence their terms of capitulation and occupancy in Allied and enemy territory.

Winant
  1. Reference is to the fall of Mussolini on July 25 and transference of supreme authority in Italy to the King and Badoglio, with latter as Head of Government.
  2. German Imperial Chancellor who was active in peace negotiations in 1918; see Foreign Relations, 1918, supp. 1, vol. i, pp. 337459, passim.
  3. Henri Philippe Pétain, French Chief of State.
  4. Dated July 16, 1943, p. 330.