865.01/2691: Telegram
The Consul General at Naples (Brandt) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 23—5:05 p.m.]
269. From Kirk. According to the communiqué released last night the Lieutenant of Realm in his address to new Government yesterday declared that the first task of all Italians was to drive the Germans from Italian soil and punish those who through their cooperation with the enemy have betrayed the Fatherland. He paid tribute to the armed forces and to the patriot bands in German occupied Italy and expressed his confidence that the new Government would intensify and invigorate Italy’s part in the struggle to which its destiny is linked; in reply Bonomi called his Cabinet a “Government of harmony” which would postpone controversies such as the institutional question. He said that the two foremost tasks of liberation and reconstruction had been entrusted to men who had always been faithful to those ideals which Fascism and Nazism tried to destroy and expressed his confidence that Italy would be able to regain its place among free nations in the world of tomorrow.
The communiqué also gave the text of the oath of office signed by the Ministers as follows:
“We swear on our honor to exercise our functions in the supreme interest of the nation and until such time as the Constitutional Assembly can be conveyed [convened?], not to commit acts which might prejudice the solution of the institutional question.”
Brandt