Office of the Historian

701.6266A/10: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Representative to the French Committee of National Liberation at Algiers (Wilson)59

Washington, March 2, 1944—9 p.m.

659. Your 559, February 21, noon. For Reinhardt.60 The Department believes that the treatment to be accorded by Allied authorities to diplomats of enemy powers accredited to the Holy See should not be less favorable than that accorded to us during the Fascist regime and subsequently during the German occupation of Rome. The former Fascist regime permitted diplomats of nations at war with Italy and accredited to Holy See to move into Vatican City and remain there unmolested. The Department considers that the Germans, Japanese and other enemy diplomatic missions accredited to Holy See should be given the option of entering Vatican City upon the arrival of Allied troops in the Italian capital.

Stettinius
  1. Transmitted as telegram 917, March 20, 1944, to Bern for the Chargé at Vatican City, Harold H. Tittmann.↩
  2. G. Frederick Bernhardt, Assistant to Robert D. Murphy, the United States Political Adviser at Allied Force Headquarters.↩