CFM Files
Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. Jacques J. Reinstein of the United States Delegation
Participants: | M. Tarchiani, Italian Ambassador in Washington |
Mr. Reinstein |
Subject: Italo-Egyptian Agreement for Settlement of War Damage Claims
M. Tarchiani called on me today to furnish me with information I had requested several days ago regarding the recent Italo-Egyptian Agreement for the settlement of claims relating to war damage. He showed me the text of an agreement signed by M. Bonomi and Wacyf Ghali Pasha in Paris on September 10, 1946. He allowed me to read the Agreement but would not give me a copy. A summary of the Agreement is attached.37
M. Tarchiani said that the Italian Government had two motives in signing the Agreement. The first was to obtain the release from sequestration of Italian assets in Egypt which he said amounted to 150 million Egyptian pounds. The other was the hope that the arrangement might help to modify the Egyptian attitude concerning the Italian colonies. He implied that the colonial authorities in Italy had been largely instrumental in putting through this secret Agreement.
M. Tarchiani expressed the hope that the Italo-Egyptian Agreement would not come under discussion in the Conference. I told him that it had already been raised and that it seemed to me quite possible that the Italian Government would be called upon to furnish information concerning the Agreement. M. Tarchiani recognized that the [Page 551] signatures of the Agreement might have adverse repercussions on the entire Italian position with regard to reparations. He said that he had personally protested against the arrangement but that M. Bonomi had arrived from Rome with instructions to sign it and had, in fact, signed it three hours after his arrival in Paris. The text of the Agreement has been closely safeguarded and he hoped that it would not be necessary for it to be disclosed.
I asked M. Tarchiani what plans had been made for ratifying the Agreement. He said that he did not know, since the entire matter had been dealt with in Rome.
- The agreement was approved by Italian law No. 512, May 16, 1947; for text, see Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repúbblica Italiana, No. 144 (June 27, 1947), pp. 1930–1933.↩