740.00119ACI/7–2244
Memorandum by the President of the Italian Council of Ministers (Bonomi) for the Secretary of State86
[Translation]
- 1.
- Next September marks the anniversary of the first year of Italy’s war at the side of the United Nations. The process of evolution which the Italian situation, both internal and external, has undergone during this year is undeniable. Thus the terms of the armistice of September 1943 certainly now represent only a de facto situation which has been superseded historically and politically. It would be an act of justice and political wisdom to adjust the de jure situation imposed upon Italy last September to the de facto situation existing today. The armistice period must, that is, be considered over and the equivocation between unconditional surrender, armistice and co-belligerence finally settled. The continuation of the present situation is politically sterile and detrimental for us and for everybody.
- 2.
- The promises and pledges made by the United Nations to the Italian people are, moreover, explicit: they solemnly promised that the alleviation of the armistice terms depended upon the extent of Italian assistance in the common war effort. Now it is perfectly clear that if Italy’s adequate military participation in the liberation of her territory is hampered and prevented, as up to yesterday it has been, one is merely perpetuating a sterile vicious circle which must be broken. The Italian Corps of Liberation must, therefore, be vastly increased in numbers and units. There are men, and they want to fight; the question is to arm and feed them.
- 3.
- The Italian people still feel themselves quarantined, shut off, as they are, in hermetic isolation. They must be brought back into that free circulation of international ideas and events which is one of the fundamental conditions for the resumption and progressive development of free democratic institutions.
- Any move in this direction has, instead, so far been barred to
us. The principal ones are mentioned:
- (a)
- request for Italian adherence to the Atlantic Charter, so far unanswered;
- (b)
- request for Italian participation in the International Labor Office, postponed indefinitely;
- (c)
- request for participation in the Monetary Conference, not granted.
- 4.
- The occupation costs, the enormous and unknown mass of currency issued by the Allies, and the high pound-dollar-lira rate of exchange cut most seriously into the exhausted Italian resources. We are told about UNRRA,87 the Committee for Italian Relief, etc. These are excellent initiatives, but they are still to come. The Italian people meanwhile are being bled white. While waiting until such measures can become active and operative, it is necessary to alleviate the economic burdens which the armistice placed upon a country which was already poor and already at the end of its tether, and which make any recovery whatsoever impossible.
- Italy asks to be placed in a position to burden Allied resources as little as possible, especially during this crucial period of the war. Her economic recovery is consequently our interest and the common interest. Italian experts and technicians should be authorized to discuss directly, in London and Washington, the more urgent and serious problems with the interested circles. These are technical and not political problems. Italy’s inclusion in the Lend-Lease Act88 could unquestionably constitute a step in the right direction.
- 5.
- The Control Commission should progressively be relieved of at least three-fourths of its duties and turn toward less oppressive and encyclopedic forms of interference and intervention in all sectors of Italian life. There are already in Italy organs which are ready to succeed it: the High Commissioners, for example, who could in turn evolve in the direction of those conferences of ambassadors which have in the past proved capable and efficient. The present situation should in any case be unfrozen. It is impossible for a country to be long, and without serious dangers, administered by two Governments. Similarly, it is impossible for a highly civilized people like the Italians to be kept indefinitely in a state of tutelage and minority.
- 6.
- Almost everywhere the vast, constructive, hard-working Italian colonies throughout the world are subject to a regime which, in some countries, is definitely comparable with the anti-Semitic persecutions. Heads of families have for years been in concentration camps, their women adandoned to prostitution and misery, and their interests, the fruit of hard and patient work, injured and compromised. One may cite, for example, the cases of the Italian colonies throughout the Mediterranean basin and, particularly, in Tunisia and Egypt. Also the situation of our 40,000 prisoners held by the French has now reached the limit of all possible physical and moral endurance. An end must at last be put to this anti-Italian crusade, which can be documented in an irrefutable manner. It serves no purpose save to [Page 1144] create further abysses of suffering and to sow the seeds of future conflicts.
- 7.
- New democratic Italy is most firmly resolved to place the country upon the former path of full, complete, and confident collaboration with the western powers. In the extremely grave material and spiritual crisis that will sweep over Europe upon the cessation of hostilities, she wishes to represent a factor for stability and order. Her people are sober, constructive, hard-working. The force of Italian labor will constitute one of the fundamental elements for European reconstruction. It must, therefore, be given credit. One must decide to begin in Italy a truly reconstructive policy. One must be convinced that 45 million Italians are inevitably one of the fundamental factors for Mediterranean and European appeasement and must act accordingly. This, moreover, is in line with the generous proposition President Roosevelt has expressed on many occasions and with the generous humanity of the American people.
Rome
, July
22, 1944.