740.00116 E.W./12–1344
The First Secretary of the British Embassy (Gore-Booth) to the Legal Adviser (Hackworth)
Dear Mr. Hackworth: I am writing with reference to this Embassy’s note No. 628 of the 13th October last to which the Department of State replied in their note No. 740.00116 E.W./10–1344,39 regarding the proposal that the Allied Commission in Italy should act on behalf of the Italian Government in transmitting to the War Crimes Commission information relating to German crimes in Italy.
- 2.
- His Majesty’s Ambassador at Moscow has now reported under date of December 10th that the Soviet Government state that as they have nothing to do with the War Crimes Commission they do not find it possible to agree that measures for the investigation of war crimes shall be undertaken on their behalf by the Allied Commission in Italy.
- 3.
- In the meantime the Foreign Office had on December 6th addressed a
message to His Majesty’s Ambassador at Rome to the following effect:
“The Soviet Government recently suggested that ‘requirements for handing over of war criminals’ should be among the questions to be discussed in the near future by the European Advisory Commission. Although these discussions will be primarily concerned with arrangements in Germany, particularly in the post-surrender period, they may provide us with an opportunity of influencing the Soviet Government’s attitude towards the international handling of the question of war crimes. We accordingly propose to see how these discussions develop before pursuing the question of Italian war crimes and German crimes against Italians through the diplomatic channel. We are however still anxious that progress should be made in dealing with the latter question, and if an opportunity arises for broaching [Page 1406] it directly in the European Advisory Commission, we propose to do so.”
Yours sincerely,