740.0011 European War 1939/34006
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State (Shaw)
I called on the Apostolic Delegate this morning and gave him the copies of the Spanish Ambassador’s memorandum and the memorandum of Mr. Long’s conversation with the Ambassador both on the subject of the problem of the bombing of Rome. I explained to the Delegate that, in view of the many references to this matter in the press both at home and abroad, we had felt that it would be wise to let him have the actual text of the documents. He expressed appreciation of our thoughtfulness and went on to ask what I thought would be the attitude of the Department if neutral representatives, presumably the Swiss, after proper examination reported that all measures had been taken to demilitarize Rome. I said that I was not in any position to express an opinion on this idea and that all that I could do was to draw his attention to the Department’s position as defined in Mr. Long’s conversation with the Spanish Ambassador.