865.01/2367: Telegram
The American Representative on the Advisory Council for Italy (Murphy) to the Secretary of State
[Received 11:32 p.m.]
3707. Sforza and Tarchiani32 dined with me last evening. The former wanted the President and Secretary to know that in accepting a Ministry without Portfolio in new Badoglio government he considered that he had made a substantial and important contribution both in Italian and Allied interest. It was not the solution he had sought. The King should have been eliminated long ago. Sforza would have found it easy, he said, to work with Humbert who “after all is not such a bad fellow”. But when five parties including Italian Communist Party found it possible to support the present formula his remaining aloof would have been misunderstood both in Italy and in the United States. The present Government, he said, is the most representative obtainable under present unfavorable circumstances. How long it lasts remains to be seen.
Sforza said confidentially that he wondered whether it might be useful for him to visit the United States where he could exercise some influence on the 5 million Italo-Americans and help them arrive at a better understanding of Italian situation and the satisfactory progress which has been made in eradication of fascism and in returning to liberal democratic forms. I was noncommital but it is not improbable that Sforza might be helpful if given the opportunity.
- Alberto Tarchiani, Italian Minister of Public Works in the Badoglio Cabinet.↩