121.840 Welles, Sumner/2: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Italy (Phillips)
32. From the Under Secretary. Your 94, February 10, 11 a.m. I greatly appreciate your personal message. Since Mathilde is coming with me and there will be two members of my staff,9 I believe it would be better for me not to accept your invitation to stay at the Embassy, and I shall consequently be grateful if the Embassy will reserve necessary accommodations at the Excelsior Hotel. I will radio from the boat details as to accommodations required.
Please express to the Foreign Minister my great appreciation of his message and of the invitation extended through you. I hope it will be possible for you without embarrassment to explain that owing to the nature of my mission, as well as because of present conditions in Europe, I would greatly prefer not to accept any entertainments while I am in Europe. My stay will be so short in each capital that I feel I would profit more if I could devote my entire time to conversations with officials of the Government in the country which I am visiting. If, as I hope, it may be convenient for the Foreign Minister and the Chief of Government to receive me immediately after my arrival in Rome, which I assume will be on February 26, my stay in Rome will presumably be limited to 2 days. [Welles.]
- He was accompanied by J. Pierrepont Moffat, Chief of the Division of European Affairs, and Hartwell Johnson, Foreign Service Officer.↩