865.01/12–144
The Secretary of State to the President
Special Information for the President
[Excerpt]1
These international developments of the past two or three days will be of especial interest to you:
Italian Political Crisis. Bonomi has been informed by Ambassador Kirk of the concern of the American Government over the prolonged Governmental crisis in Italy. Kirk has been instructed that we do not wish to pass upon the composition of the new Italian Government but that it should be required to abide by previous Italian undertakings to the Allies. The British Ambassador has clearly stated to Bonomi that the appointment of Sforza as Foreign Minister would be unacceptable. Kirk considers this an undue interference in Italian internal affairs which, since Italy is a theater of combined operations, to some extent involves the United States. Winant has therefore been instructed to express our regret to the Foreign Office that it felt it necessary to intervene in an internal Italian political crisis particularly without prior consultation with us, pointing out that this intervention has complicated the crisis by angering the Left parties and has occasioned widespread critical comment in the U. S. press.