CFM Files
Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. J. Wesley Jones of the United States Delegation
| Participants: | The Secretary, and a Committee representing the American Committee for a Just Peace with Italy composed of |
| Mr. and Mrs. Luigi Antonini, | |
| Mrs. Rufo, | |
| Judge Forte, | |
| Judge Alessandroni, | |
| Mr. Montana. |
The Secretary received a delegation of Americans this afternoon at 3:30 representing the American Committee for a Just Peace with [Page 272] Italy. The delegation has come to Paris to present the views of the Committee to the Secretary. Mr. Antonini, in introducing himself and his delegation, said that he likewise represented the American Federation of Labor and the Pan American Conference of Free Italy which met in Buenos Aires last month. He handed the Secretary a letter from the A.F. of L. He said that his Committee was disturbed by the trend of events in Paris with respect to the drafting of the Italian peace treaty; that they were interested in encouraging and assisting the new democratic Italian republic; that they were convinced that Italy should and could become a constructive force in Europe and the world, and that for these reasons they were working to prevent a punitive peace for Italy. Mr. Antonini said that at the recent conference in Buenos Aires he had had an opportunity to talk with the Foreign Ministers of several Latin American countries and that he found a universal desire to assist the new Italian Government and people and to support a just peace. He pointed out that our relations with South America made it important not to ignore this sentiment. Mr. Antonini referred to the large number of Americans in the United States of Italian extraction and their interest in a just peace for Italy. In referring to the various clauses of the CFM draft treaty Mr. Antonini particularly stressed the importance of the settlement in Venezia Giulia and the desirability of extending the Free Territory of Trieste to include western Istria and Pola. Mr. Montana said that the French should be persuaded to make some concession to Italy in their demands along the northwestern frontier to avoid a serious estrangement of France and Italy at this particular moment in European history. Mrs. Rufo expressed a fear of Communism in Italy.
Mr. Antonini concluded that he and the other Americans in the delegation would not be in Paris today pleading Italy’s case if they were not convinced of the fundamental democratic character of the new Italian Government and the Italian people.
The Secretary thanked the delegation for the expression of its views. He said that he understood them and was sympathetic with them; that there was not much that he could add to what the delegation already knew from his radio address and from press reports of the difficulties which the American Delegates to the CFM and the Paris Conference had encountered in trying to give Italy the kind of a peace which the Americans felt she deserved. He said that he had been surprised at the hostile attitude and comments against Italy which had been made by certain delegations to the Conference and that we as Americans were inclined to forget the human suffering and material damage which some of Italy’s neighbors had suffered as a result of her aggression from 1935 onward. He referred to the large reparations demands which had been made not only by Russia but by Albania, Ethiopia and certain other victims of the Fascist aggression.
[Page 273]The Secretary said that the Italian Prime Minister, when he had called on him this morning,47 had made a similar proposal concerning the extension of the Free Territory of Trieste. The Secretary reviewed his efforts to have the Free Territory extended over a larger area of the Istrian Peninsula and, while feeling that France and England would be agreeable, expressed the conviction that the Soviet Government would not agree, having undoubtedly committed itself to Yugoslavia to bring this area as much under Yugoslav domination as possible. The Secretary pointed out the advantages to Italy of having this area internationalized under the United Nations which he believed could offer the only security of its independence and freedom from Yugoslav aggression. He referred to the problem of Yugoslavia in present international relations and our serious differences with that country at the moment over the shooting down of two unarmed American transport planes.
The Secretary referred to the progress of the Paris Conference and the evident lack of good will and spirit of cooperation as depressing and discouraging. He said, however, that the United States was determined to proceed with the conclusion of the peace treaties with all former enemies as the only possible basis on which the world could be reconstructed and life in the various former enemy countries returned to normal. He said that he himself was convinced of the wisdom of this policy and that he had been fighting for it since last September against consistent opposition from the Soviet Union and its satellites. He concluded by saying that he had every sympathy for Signor de Gasperi and his new and democratic republic and that he knew and understood the desires of the Committee to see Italy receive a just peace settlement.