865.01/2629: Telegram
The Consul General at Naples (Brandt) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 12—5:45 p.m.]
175. From Kirk. Count Sforza called on me this evening and condemned in most emphatic terms the implications in the representations made by MacFarlane this afternoon on instructions from London (see my 174, June 12, 6 p.m.) which he characterized as a betrayal of the basic policy of the United Nations, as a denial of efforts towards a united Italy and an obstruction to the successful prosecution of the war. In my presence he wrote the following message which I quote verbatim as no other copy was retained:
“It is not for Italy but for the sake of democracies and out of my deep personal devotion to America that I must warn against possible results of this step. If somewhere it was thought that we may be frightened, the disillusion will be big indeed. We are ready to go to jail even to be shot by a military reaction rather than to betray the cause of Italian freedom and of the very principles on which the glory of the United States stands.
We are the first group of Ministers who have always all of us opposed fascism and expressed devotion to the United Nations which cannot be said of previous Cabinets.
If this is our crime, we are sure that the American nation will be with us.”
Brandt