740.00119 Control (Italy)/8–2245

The Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs ( De Gasperi ) to the Secretary of State 24

My Dear Secretary of State: Although I have not yet had the honor of making your personal acquaintance I take the liberty of addressing you with this letter, on the eve of the London Conference. Representing as I do a Country to which the United States have given throughout the period of co-belligerency so much evidence of human solidarity, and being entrusted with the leadership of a political party, forcibly suppressed because it stood for freedom against dictatorship and which, restored through the Allied victory, fully shares the ideals of American democracy, namely the dignity of the human person, tolerance and equality, social justice and government of the people founded on public order and observance of the Law, I feel I can address you, my dear Secretary of State, in an atmosphere of mutual understanding.

The fascist dictatorship, together with nazism, has been responsible for grievous wrongs. As soon as the Italian people were in a position to do so, they did their utmost to redress them and now, in their sense of justice, they do not intend to evade obligations laid upon them by international law and morals.

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However the most substantial reparation Italy can offer consists in her contribution to the building up of a better world through her labor and culture. Although Italy has scattered all over the world so many of her sons in a peaceful competition for progress, and America has welcomed so many of them in a brotherly spirit, her population is still tightly concentrated within a small peninsula, impoverished by a long tyranny and exhausted by war. Nevertheless the natural qualities of industriousness and frugality, the age-long tradition of Christian morality and ancient Law, may yet make of the Italian people a sound and secure span for western civilization, the preservation of which was the fundamental concern of the great American statesmen—Wilson as well as Roosevelt—when they took the grave decision of entering into war.

It is for the cause of this civilization that we ask you now to be allowed to go on fighting with the instruments of peace, just as with your help we have fought with the weapons of war.

At Potsdam, America has already shown her understanding that this is only possible if peace will restore to the Italian people the dignity of the Free and the certainty that no condition essential to their development will be denied or impaired.

You certainly will have every opportunity, my dear Secretary of State, to acquaint yourself with the conditions that the Italian people’s conscience deems essential and with the objective and subjective reasons that cause them to be so considered. However you will allow me to refer briefly and in the order of their importance to the principal among them.

Eastern Frontier With Yugoslavia

We willingly admit that, from an ethnical and economical viewpoint, Yugoslavia is entitled to some rectification of the present frontier, although it was freely agreed upon between the two Countries, at Rapallo in 1920.25 We believe that the line suggested by President Wilson,26 may be taken as the basis for such an adjustment. This line would mean to Italy the painful loss of two Italian cities, Fiume and Zara, and of nearly 80.000 Italians, while it would re-unite with Yugoslavia over 100.000 Slavs. We feel however bound to ask that account be duly taken of the necessity of safeguarding the autonomy of the cities of Fiume and Zara, by the establishment of special Statutes. As to the remaining territories, since a clear-cut ethnical borderline cannot possibly be drawn, the Italian Government are ready to stipulate with Yugoslavia, under the auspices of the United [Page 1026] Nations—or in any case to accept—a mutual obligation for the granting of cultural guarantees and local autonomies to the minorities.

The Italian Government are fully alive to the importance of the harbor of Trieste for the bordering Countries and they are ready to co-operate in order to reach an arrangement which would guarantee both to the harbor and to its railway connections their particular functions. The Italian people intimately feel that a forcible transfer of population entails extreme suffering: however they will not oppose an examination of this possibility, if and when requested by Yugoslavia.

Italy feels that co-operation is necessary with that Country in the field of economic relations and peaceful commercial trade; for this reason she will be all the more willing to accept the demilitarization of Pola, if requested, provided that the same measure be carried into effect for the naval base of Cattaro and on condition that the full independence of Albania constitute a further element of security and equilibrium in the Adriatic.

Northern Frontier of the Brenner Pass

The situation in the upper Adige region has undergone considerable changes since 1919. Italy has built in the district huge electric power plants: those in the provinces of Bolzano and Trento represent 13% of the whole national output. The potential hydroelectric power existing in this region is the only reserve left to Northern Italy for the development of the Po Valley industries and the national system of railway communications. Italy has developed, mainly in Bolzano, chemical and mechanical industries with thousands of Italian workers.

An intense national-socialist feeling penetrated the German-speaking population before and during the war so that the region gave a conspicuous contribution of volunteers to the nazi S.S. It is not true that this circumstance was brought about by a reaction against fascism; on the contrary the campaign in favor of the options, which took place after 1939, was conducted by Hitler’s agents in the name of the Third Reich, and the most heated nationalists adhered to it, whereas many farmers and former Austrian nobles, as the Minister Toggenburg—to quote one outstanding example—declared themselves for Italy. The result of the options was due to an intensive nazi propaganda. The creation today of a German “enclave” on the Italian side of the Brenner Pass would be equivalent to establishing a cradle of future German nationalism, pioneered by those S.S. bands which are still roaming on the Alpine slopes.

Between 1919 and 1922, democratic Italy assured the German-speaking inhabitants cultural equality and representation in Parliament. Negotiations were also in progress with a view to establishing local [Page 1027] autonomies in the whole of the Tridentine Venetia. The Fascist dictatorship upset the local situation; but now the Italian democratic Government, in agreement with the A.M.G., has already taken proper measures with regard to German schools and a plan for local autonomies is being completed. The plan will be similar to the one already approved for the Aosta Valley and will be a sound bulwark for every legitimate freedom.

It has been said that the conservative element in Austria would be strengthened by adding to that Country about 200,000 Southern Tyrolese. But, as a former deputy to the Viennese Parliament, I am deeply convinced that either it will be possible to set up a large and economically sound Danubian State, in which case the annexation of a few Tyrolese will be superfluous, or else a small and anemic Austria could only subsist as a protectorate of a great Power closely interested in the Danubian Basin.

Should the Italian and “Ladin”27 minorities of the Bolzano province and the economic interest of the whole of Italy be sacrificed to this uncertain future? And, moreover, does this precarious outlook warrant the doors of the Brenner Pass to be left wide open to a new German “Drang nach Süden”?

I venture to believe, my dear Secretary of State, that the above stated reasons for the preservation of the Brenner frontier will not be considered either narrow or selfish.

Western Frontier With France

No difficulties should arise. So as to dispel all possible suspicions on the part of France, we signed an agreement on February 28th, 1945, which, at the price of a great sacrifice for us, resigns every Italian claim on Tunis and every form of protection over those Italian laborers, workmen and professional men who through their activity have so considerably contributed to the economic development of Tunisia. On that occasion the French Government stated that they did not intend advancing any other claims than those relating to the Fezzan: now, however, they ask for adjustments of the western frontier. Even in this issue we have no intention of maintaining an uncompromising attitude.

Besides possible measures of demilitarization, we are willing to accept adjustments in the Vesubia and Tinea areas (“hunting grounds”), but the claim to Tenda and Briga Marittima appear, to Italian public opinion, to be wholly unwarranted.

Direct and friendly negotiations between the two Countries in order to reach an equitable and rapid solution of these issues, may be preferable to any other method.

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Aegean Islands

For public works, agricultural reclamation, industries and artisan activities, artistic and cultural development in the Aegean Islands (Dodecanese), Italy has spent millions over millions since 1912. The Italian people would willingly see them entrusted to Greece as a compensation and as a token of friendship between the two Mediterranean Countries.

However, the Italians living in Rhodes—whose activity has been intimately connected with the economic life of the island for many years—should be afforded, through equitable guarantees, the possibility of carrying on their work.

Colonies

Before Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia, democratic Italy never considered colonies as a tool for imperialism, but rather as a means for absorbing Italy’s surplus manpower. Present democratic Italy considers them in this same light. No incompatibility, therefore, appears to exist on principle between the interests of Italian labor and the administrative method of a trusteeship. In practice, however, such a collective method hardly corresponds to the peculiar necessities of the Italian colonies, owing to the difference between the Italian colonial conception and praxis founded on emigration, and the Anglo-Saxon system mainly based on raw materials and markets.

As regards the four Libyan provinces and the single colonies, I beg to refer to the Memoranda which we are ready to submit on each subject.

I only wish to mention two questions which, according to information received, appear to be the most debated; the ultimate fate of Cyrenaica and of Eritrea.

We gather that while no objections are raised against Italian sovereignty in Tripolitania, strategic guarantees are being sought in Cyrenaica in order to afford full security to the bordering Countries and to the international sea routes. We believe that such a security could be obtained through the establishment of “strategic areas”, air and naval bases and other guarantees in the Tobruk sector and in Marmarica, without depriving Italy of the sovereignty on the Cyrenaica plateau, which she has already partly transformed into a suitable territory for her agricultural emigration.

Similarly, if even for Somaliland a trusteeship system could be discussed, in our old colony of Eritrea the maintenance of Italian sovereignty is essential. This is fully reconcilable with Ethiopia’s requirement for a free outlet to the sea, for which purpose Italy has built the road leading from Dessie to Assab. This access could be [Page 1029] guaranteed either within Italian territory or, if requested, through frontier rectifications. Furthermore, to meet the legitimate requirements of the northern Abissinian regions, a free zone could be established at Massaua.

As to other details and other questions of an economic character, I have asked Ambassador Tarchiani to supply all necessary information.

In this letter I have confined myself to tracing the outline of a solution which cannot be considered an Italian national solution, but rather a contribution to international reconstruction and cooperation on the basis of a just peace, envisaged not as a punishment for the past, but as a foundation for a better European future.

I have not followed the traditional methods of expounding maximum propositions from which to recede to other possible ones: I have rather preferred to admit at once and frankly the sacrifices which we feel duty bound to make and to mention the conditions which appear to us necessary in order that the Italian people be enabled to collaborate effectively in the new world settlement founded on justice.

This procedure must be taken as another proof of Italy’s absolute confidence in the sense of justice and in the understanding of the United States of America and of their representative to the London Conference.

For the successful outcome of this Conference I beg you to accept my best wishes. In expressing them I know I am interpreting the feeling of the hard working Italian people, who sincerely trust that the United States will impress upon the Conference the full meaning of their ideals of human brotherhood and social justice.

Believe me [etc.]

A. De Gasperi
  1. Transmitted to the Department through the Italian Embassy in Washington.
  2. November 12, 1920; for text of agreement, see League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. xviii, p. 388.
  3. For description and map, see H. W. V. Temperley (ed.), A History of the Peace Conference of Paris (London, 1921), vol. iv, p. 298.
  4. Rhaeto-Romanic speaking people.