CFM Files
Observations on the Draft Peace Treaty With Italy Submitted by the Italian Delegation1
I. Political and Territorial Clauses
Doc. No. 1 (P).
Memorandum on the Preamble to the Draft Peace Treaty
1. The first premises of the Preamble deal with the Fascist war of aggression waged by Italy and the responsibility which results. The wording of this paragraph appears somewhat summary and certain points are insufficiently precise. It is, therefore, proposed that the following alterations should be made.
- a.
- Instead of “Italy under the Fascist regime became a party to the Tripartite Pact”, insert the following text “Italy was led by the Fascist regime to become a party to the Tripartite Pact”.
- b.
- Instead of “declared a war of aggression and entered into war with all the Allied and Associated Powers and with other United Nations” it is proposed to adopt the wording used in the Draft Peace Treaties with other States, as follows: “declared a war of aggression against some of the above-mentioned Powers and entered into war with other United Nations”.
- It should be pointed out that far from having entered into war with all the States mentioned in the Preamble, Italy never declared war on some of them (Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Czechoslovakia) and never received a declaration of war from the latter. Even though some of these States, at a particular moment, considered themselves as being in a state of war with Italy, this was only as the result of unilateral [Page 118] action which was not communicated to the other party. No hostile acts actually occurred and the nationals of these States were never considered in Italy to be enemy aliens. Neither their property nor their activities were ever placed under any restrictions or otherwise interfered with by the Italian Government.
2. The second premises refer to the overthrow of the Fascist regime and the Armistice. No mention is made of the active role played by the Italian people in these events, and there is no reference to the struggle of the intellectuals and workers which made the “coup d’état” of 25th July possible.
It would seem equitable to delete the assertion that Italy “surrendered unconditionally”, since it was agreed in the Protocol signed at Brindisi on November 9th, 1943 that the words “at the discretion of” contained in Article 1 a of the Malta Armistice should be deleted. Consequently, the above premises might be amended as follows:
- a.
- Instead of “under the pressure of military events, the Fascist regime in Italy was overthrown” read “owing to the military situation the Italian people were able to overthrow the Fascist regime”.
- b.
- Instead of “Italy surrendered unconditionally and accepted terms of Armistice” read: “and Italy was the first to break with the Powers of the Tripartite Pact, accepting the terms of Armistice…”.2
3. The third premises describe much too cursorily the period of co-belligerency and overlooks the important contribution made by the Italian Regular Army and the partisans to the liberation campaign. It also omits Italy’s declaration of war on Japan.
It is, in a word, the spirit of these premises which should be modified by adding references which recall Italy’s material share in the war against Germany, which lasted for 18 months. This text might be worded as follows:
“Whereas after the said Armistice the Italian Regular and Underground Forces immediately took a substantially active part in the war against Germany and Italy formally declared war on Germany as from October 13, 1943, and on Japan as from July 15, 1945, and thereby became a co-belligerent against Germany and Japan.”