Hopkins Papers
The Chief of the Economic Section of the Allied Control Commission for Italy (O’Dwyer) to the President1
Report to the President on the Italian Situation
i. health, supply and shipping situation
The plight of the Italian people is serious as a result of Nazi and Fascist rule and the battle destruction on its soil. The accumulated result of years of undernourishment and the destruction caused by the fighting has already begun to show up and is likely to show up in accelerated form in the near future. From available information, including the official Allied government medical opinion, the general health of the people seems to be bad. Serious outbreaks of illness are to be expected beginning with winter conditions. The low resistance of the people is said to be the result of continued low consumption under Fascist occupation. The dangerous period is said to be from January to July, 1945. Increased food supply is prescribed by the Allied Control [Page 211] Commission Health Subcommission. Any added quantities of food needed will obviously require more shipping space than presently allocated shipping. In view of the responsibility of the Allied governments, present policy should be amended to include adequate shipping allocation immediately.
ii. italian unemployment
Universal unemployment is foreseen for the coining winter, mainly due to the thoroughness of the demolition of power plants by the enemy forces. Next in importance to an increased food supply will be a partial restoration of power. Without adequate food supply and partial restoration of manufacturing the result may well be rioting, bloodshed and anarchy. Without these two basic aids the Italian people and the goverenment will be in a desperate plight. A relatively slight change in present policies may help to correct this situation.
iii. inland transportation
The present condition of transportation is haphazard and grossly in adequate. Any plan to maintain a food supply and to put the Italian people in a position where they can help themselves must include adequate transportation. Adequate transportation should be made available following relief of the strain caused by military necessity. Food, medical and other vital supplies landed in Italy are of no use unless they are gotten to the people who vitally need them. To do this adequate transportation is essential.
iv. the relationship of the allied control commission and the italians’ co-belligerent status to the supply and economic situation in italy
It is desirable to take every step necessary to develop the initiative of the Italian people.
The Italian mind is friendly toward the Allies but confused. The difficulties arise from an inability to understand the distinction between the status of a defeated enemy as against the status of a co-belligerent. Despite the fact that there are Italian divisions fighting side by side with the Allies, and despite the fact that there is unrestricted use of Italian resources to serve Allied military needs, there are still Italians held as prisoners of war.
It is generally believed that government responsibility in liberated Italy might well be placed without any major restrictions in the hands of the Italian government, that the formal state of war between the Allies and Italy should be discontinued, and that the Allied Control Commission in liberated Italy should be abolished and its functions placed in the hands of civilian experts.
- The source text is filed with the following undated handwritten chit: “Mr. Hopkins:—This is the memo of which I spoke to you last evening. Bill O’Dwyer”. It is not known whether O’Dwyer actually gave a copy to Roosevelt, but, if not, he presumably gave the President the gist of the memorandum during a meeting which he and Crowley had with Roosevelt at 11:15 a.m., September 8 (Roosevelt Papers).↩