Foreign Relations of the United States, 1951, Europe: Political and Economic Developments, Volume IV, Part 1

No. 305

665.001/9–1351

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Director of the Office of Western European Affairs (Byington)

secret

[Washington,] September 13, 1951.

Subject: Italian Peace Treaty

Participants:	Mr. Burrows, Counselor, British Embassy
	Mr. de Juniac, Counselor, French Embassy
	Mr. Luciolli, Counselor, Italian Embassy
	Mr. Byington, Director, WE

I informed Mr. Luciolli that we had asked him to meet with us in order to give him as quickly as possible the views of our Ministers with regard to a possible procedure for the de facto revision of the Italian Peace Treaty.

I then explained orally the procedure outlined in paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7 of the procedure adopted by the Foreign Ministers at their meeting during the afternoon.¹

Mr. Luciolli then discussed in general the whole procedure with all three of us and he was reassured that the three governments all contemplated presenting the declaration and the notes in the best possible light with due consideration to the Italian requirements for their public opinion and that it was hoped to have as many of the signatories as we possibly could join with us in the contemplated procedure. Mr. Luciolli said that he would leave immediately for New York to convey the information to the Italian Prime Minister² and would probably return tomorrow with Mr. De Gasperi’s preliminary reaction.

Mr. Luciolli later asked me privately whether there was any proposal to connect the question of Trieste with the procedure the Ministers envisaged for the de facto revision of the Peace Treaty. He said that Prime Minister De Gasperi would certainly raise this question with him. I replied that he should inform the Prime Minister we had given him, Mr. Luciolli, all the information which the Foreign Ministers had instructed us to give him, that we were not instructed to go into any further matters.

1. This is presumably a reference to specific paragraphs of Tripartite D–1, “Italian Peace Treaty,” September 13, approved as a course of action by the three Foreign Ministers during their fifth meeting on September 13. For a record of this meeting and text of Tripartite D–1, see vol. iii, Part 1, pp. 1279 and 1295.
2. De Gasperi visited New York, September 11–13, on his way to Ottawa where he planned to attend the Seventh Session of the North Atlantic Council, September 15–20. For documentation on the Seventh Session, see ibid., pp. 616 ff.