Office of the Historian

Roosevelt Papers

The Deputy Director of the Office of European Affairs (Matthews) to the Presidents Special Assistant (Hopkins)1

Washington, September 16, 1944.

Memorandum for Mr. Harry Hopkins

With reference to our recent memorandum2 concerning current problems with Italy, we would like to submit the following considerations to the President during his conversations with the British Prime Minister.

Certain areas of Italy’s northeastern frontier will probably be in dispute after hostilities. In order that the final disposition of these disputed areas would not be prejudiced by occupation by the armed forces of claimant states, it is suggested that Allied Military Government be extended to all Italian metropolitan territory within its 1939 frontiers. In the South Tyrol and the Istrian Peninsula (Venezia Tridentina and Venezia Giulia), Allied Military Government should be maintained and these areas not restored to Italian administration (as is the present practice with respect to liberated areas in southern Italy). Allied Military Government would thus be maintained until the disputed areas are finally disposed of by peace treaty or other settlement. Any other course, such as letting the Tito forces occupy the Peninsula or Free Austrian forces occupy the South Tyrol prior to final disposition at the peace settlement, would undoubtedly prejudice the final disposition of these territories, cause deep resentment [Page 486] on the part of the Italian people, and result in the loss of considerable prestige by the Allies in Italy.

The British have already suggested a plan along these lines and would, it is believed, be willing to maintain Allied Military Government in frontier areas likely to be in dispute for the required period. It is reported that this is also the plan of the Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean Theater,3 at least with respect to the Istrian Peninsula. On our part, it would mean keeping a certain number of American Military Government officers and soldiers in Northeastern Italy.

H F[reeman] M[atthews]
  1. Hopkins presumably took this memorandum with him to Hyde Park when he went there to participate in the Roosevelt-Churchill conversations of September 18-19, 1944. The source text bears the following manuscript notation at the bottom of the page, made at Hyde Park: “18 Sept. President approves. W[illiam] D. L[eahy].”↩
  2. For the memorandum referred to and the enclosure thereto, see ante, pp. 412 and 207, respectively.↩
  3. General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson.↩