C.F.M. Files: Lot M–88: Box 2094: Italian-Yugoslav Frontier VIII
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Acting Chief of the Division of Southern European Affairs (Reber)
| Participants: | Count Carandini, Italian Ambassador [in the United Kingdom] |
| Mr. Dunn | |
| Mr. Reber |
Count Carandini called this morning at his request to explain the recent developments in respect of direct negotiations between Italy and Yugoslavia which he felt required clarification particularly in view of the newspaper articles this morning. He said it was quite untrue that contact was being established between the Italian and Yugoslav representatives here as a result of Molotov’s letter to Quaroni.59 The sequence of events was as follows: On November 18 the Italian Ambassadors here had received a telegram from Nenni instructing them to establish contact with the Yugoslav Delegation in New York. Since they considered this would be an unwise move which would be open to misinterpretation by the press particularly if the Italian Government had no specific proposals to make, they requested Nenni to reconsider these instructions. Yesterday, however, they received a further telegram stating that Quaroni should see Simich merely to establish contact. Carandini said it was clear that Nenni was under so much pressure in Italy that he wanted to be in a position to say that he had done his part in keeping the way open for direct negotiations. Carandini was most emphatic that the approach which Quaroni is making to Simich is not connected with the letter which the Italian Delegation yesterday received from Molotov and should not be interpreted as taking place under Soviet pressure.
He was concerned, however, lest the coincidence of these two developments would delay the Ministers’ decisions in respect of the Statute for the Free Territory and that the protection afforded by the U.S., U.K. and French sponsorship of the Paris recommendations would [Page 1215] be diminished by direct negotiations between Italy and Yugoslavia before any final decision had been reached here.60
- Ante, p. 1199.↩
Subsequent to this conversation, Ambassador Carandini conversed by telephone with Foreign Minister Nenni to confirm the Foreign Minister’s instructions with respect to the negotiations with the Yugoslav representatives. Carandini telegraphed his understanding of these instructions to Rome for written confirmation. Carandini’s telegram, a copy of which was made available to H. Freeman Matthews, in translation read in part as follows:
↩- “1) that your instructions to establish contact with the Yugoslav Delegation were based on the understanding that the basic points of the Paris decisions with regard to the French Line and to the Free State had been definitely confirmed as representing a limit of safety for us and a point of departure for direct contact.
- “2) and if this were not the case because various individual questions were still open then the entire question in your firm expectation that the decisions of Paris would be confirmed as our minimum guarantee must remain open.
- “3) that contacts with the Yugoslavs must be carried on by us on the basis of the Paris solutions.
- “4) that these contacts will be established in good faith not in order to interfere with but to assist the solutions of the Four looking toward the minimum guarantee and that they should be carried on in the spirit in which they were approved and encouraged in the letters of the Four answering our question on this subject.” (CFM Files, Lot M–88, Box 2094, Italian-Yugoslav Frontier VIII)