865.01/2316: Telegram
The American Representative on the Advisory Council for Italy (Murphy)23 to the Secretary of State
[Received 9 p.m.]
During course of a long conversation with Count Carlo Sforza on April 7 he said that he could not describe with sufficient urgency the necessity of immediate action by Great Britain and the United States to avoid all of Italy falling under complete domination of Soviet Union. He said that extraordinary progress had been made in Italy by Communist Party particularly since arrival of Togliatti (Ercoli) whom he described as the brains and leader of the organization stating that Tedeschi is a gangster type lacking in education and playing a minor role. Sforza said that the problem may seem to the United States in its security one of minor significance. He sees in it, however, the first step in what he calls the process of the “Diplomatic Sovietization of Europe”. Same process in his opinion will be applied to the Balkans, France, and Spain. A different procedure will be applied to Germany where more direct and destructive methods will be used. In his opinion the Comintern remains the active force it has been in the past and the public statements regarding its dissolution are pure hypocrisy. Sforza became bitter in his denunciation of Prime Minister Churchill whose obtuseness he blames for failure to comprehend true nature of problem. He realizes he said that Churchill is opposed to Communistic encroachment in Central and Eastern Europe but he maintains that Churchill fails to grasp necessity of pursuing a different line of action than he has adopted. He asserts that Churchill’s blind and stubborn adherence to the notion of supporting [Page 1091] present King and a weak Badoglio government has given the Communists an ideal and fertile field for their development. Ercoli, he said, has been conducting negotiations with Badoglio which in Sforza’s opinion will place the eventual power squarely in hands of Italian Communist Party. The latter, he states, is growing by leaps and bounds and daily before the central office of the Communist Party is a long line of applicants, former [applicants for] membership in the party including every type of citizens: businessmen, professional men and artisans. Since Ercoli’s arrival the known funds of the party have increased to 25,000,000 lire.
Sforza stated that he has had several conversations with Togliatti and Tedeschi. The former suggested that in the new government the Communists want to see Sforza included since he is an old tried anti-Fascist but they made the suggestion that they would like to have the portfolio of Foreign Affairs and hoped that Sforza would not insist on that particular portfolio.
Sforza pleaded that both Britain and the United States take a more realistic view immediately and intervene for purpose of bringing pressure upon King to retire now and agree to appointment of Humbert as Lieutenant General of the Eealm. He states, however, [moreover?], that he has had exchanges with Humbert and is convinced that Humbert is willing to work with him in the formation of a strong liberal coalition government.
Sforza urged again that we give prompt consideration to question whether it is in Anglo-American interest to permit Soviet Union to lay cornerstone of its plan to construct a diplomatic hegemony of Europe.
- Mr. Murphy was succeeded as American Representative on the Advisory Council for Italy by Alexander C. Kirk, who was appointed on March 31 but did not arrive at his post until April 29.↩