740.00119 European War 1939/2029
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Stettinius)
Lord Halifax this afternoon brought up the question of the desirability of making the Italian surrender terms public. He stated that Mr. Jones of the State Department had discussed this with Mr. Hayter, but that he wished to press the matter, stating that the British Government would be asked about this by Parliament and it would be difficult for them to keep the terms private indefinitely.
I discussed this with Mr. Matthews on the telephone and he informed me that only two weeks ago we had referred this to General Eisenhower who took the position that this was a military matter and the terms could not be made public at this time.
The matter was left that Mr. Matthews will communicate with Sir Ronald Campbell on this matter in Lord Halifax’s absence.