740.0011 EW (Peace)/3–847
The Acting Secretary of State to the Secretary of State, in Moscow Relations Committee (Vandenberg)
My Dear Senator Vandenberg: I have received your letter of March 8, 1947,1 regarding the possibility of encouraging the Italians in the present situation, and of giving them some hope for eventual revision of the Italian Treaty.
I agree with you as to the desirability of making a few dramatic moves coincidentally with consideration of ratification of the Italian Treaty. There are several steps which we already have in mind, and I am asking the interested officers of the Department to keep your suggestion in mind with a view to determining what else we can appropriately do.
As I believe you know, we intend to explain to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during the Treaty hearings the position taken by the United States Delegation at the Paris Conference on the return of Italian assets in the United States.2 Subsequently, we propose to issue a statement on this subject which will give the Italians the official assurances they desire.3 We have also been giving consideration to the Italian request that Italian naval vessels allocated to the United States be given to them for scrapping. I think this will be done, but it would seem preferable to make no public statement about our intentions before the Treaty has been ratified.4
As regards the possibility of future revision of some of the Treaty clauses, I enclose a copy of Secretary Marshall’s letter of February 28 to the Italian Ambassador giving the Department’s views on this subject.5 While this letter may not be particularly encouraging, it does hold out some hope to the Italian Government, which appears to be under no delusion as to the difficulty it will face in any eventual move for Treaty revision, and the Department intends to make it public after hearings on the Treaty have been resumed. You may wish to consider [Page 536] incorporating these views also in the statement you will make to the Senate regarding the Italian Treaty.
I am most grateful for your letter and hope you will let me know if you have any further suggestions along this line.
Sincerely yours,
- Not printed; in it Senator Vandenberg inquired “whether there is anything—along the line of De Gasperi’s note or otherwise—which we could say to Italy by way of hope for the future, coincident with our consideration of Treaty ratification.” (740.0011 EW (Peace)/3–847)↩
- Article 69 of the draft treaty for Italy dealing with Italian Property in Territory of Allied and Associated Powers, which the United States supported at the Peace Conference as an agreed article, is printed in Foreign Relations, 1946, vol. iv, p. 31. U.S. statements regarding proposed amendments to Article 69 are printed in the same volume, pp. 399–401.↩
- See Acting Secretary of State Acheson’s letter of April 15 to Senator Vandenberg, Department of State Bulletin, June 1, 1947, p. 1075.↩
- See the message from the Secretary of State to the Italian Foreign Minister which was released to the press on October 7, 1947, Department of State Bulletin, October 19, 1947, p. 769.↩
- Ante, p. 529.↩