Rome Embassy Files, 711.9 Italy
The Head of the Italian Government (Badoglio) to President Roosevelt 45a
Mr. President: I should be very grateful to you, Mr. President, if you would find time and leisure to consider some brief considerations on the amendment regarding the armistice and the naval clauses which I, as head of the Italian government and Admiral DeCourten, as Minister of the Navy, have found ourselves in the harsh necessity of being obliged to sign today, after having in vain suggested a modification which, in our opinion, would have been without doubt more in keeping with the de jure and de facto situation now existing between our countries.
I shall sum up my thought briefly:
The armistice signed by General Castellano on the 3d of September by my order contained no clause which referred to the surrender of Italy. They were, as you know, principally military clauses. At that time I was told that later further clauses would be presented to me but only civil ones.
On the 29th of September when on our part we had already given loyal execution to all the terms of the armistice and when, with the full approval of the Anglo-American mission, the phase of real collaboration had begun, I was compelled, at Malta, to sign the additional clauses which altered and made more burdensome the conditions of the armistice signed the 3d of September, and which were entitled “Unconditional surrender of Italy.”
On my remonstrance General Eisenhower pledged himself to present to the Allied governments the reason for my disagreement and to propose to them the cancellation of various sentences particularly and needlessly harmful to the good name of the new Italy and prejudicial, in my opinion to the common cause which it was and is my firm purpose to maintain with all means at my disposal.
General Eisenhower in fact wrote me—among other things—what follows:
“The supplementary terms of the Armistice are based upon the situation obtaining prior to the cessation of hostilities. Developments since that time have altered considerably the status of Italy, which has become in effect a co-operator with the United Nations.
“It is fully recognized by the Governments on whose behalf I am acting that these terms are in some respects superseded by subsequent events and that several of the clauses have become obsolescent.”
And even more explicitly the Head of the Allied Mission assured me formally and in writing on October 17:
“In confirmation of the statement which I have already made to you orally, I have the honor to inform you that the American, British and Soviet Governments have approved the amendments to the document containing the Long Armistice terms which you desired.”
However and notwithstanding the further transition from cooperation to cobelligerency and the assurances I had been given, the document was returned to me corrected in part but still containing the word “surrender” which did not occur in the original clauses.
Similarly too for the naval conditions.
On the 23d of September this question was discussed exhaustively and at length by Admiral Cunningham and Admiral DeCourten and brought to a conclusion agreed upon by both parties.
Now, more than thirty days after, a new document is presented to me, a new amendment in which there is finally conceded the cancellation—previously promised and announced—of the words which had occasioned my remonstrances, but, at the same time, signature by the Allies is conditioned on our acceptance of another naval clause which turns again on a matter already agreed upon after discussion and weighs heavily on the position of Italy.
I have been compelled, I repeat, to sign this amendment which I nevertheless hope you will be able to have re-examined on the basis of the modification suggested by me.
May I be allowed to point out that at this time three quarters of the Italian naval forces are collaborating with the naval forces of the Allies; that Italian forces have fought in Sardinia and in Corsica; that Italian forces are fighting in the Aegean islands at the side of English forces; that Italian forces are fighting, under particularly hard and trying circumstances, in Croatia, Montenegro and Greece in unity with Greeks and Serbs; that our patriots are fighting in Northern Italy, in desperate conditions, against the Germans and are sabotaging lines of communication and supply.
May I be allowed also to recall that in the liberated zone we have not only complied with all the requests of the Allies but we have continued to insist that our troops take part in the liberation of the country—a plea that has been finally granted in part.
My Government which, in its present temporary formation, ensures, in my opinion under present circumstances those guarantees of order and stability which it is in your interest to maintain, and which as you know must be replaced as soon as Rome is reached, by another which may better and more completely represent the new Italy, my government, born as it was among the difficulties of war [Page 395] and extremely difficult domestic conditions, watches with a certain bitterness this progressive and constant aggravation of conditions already discussed and agreed upon by the Allied governments. It finds some difficulty in understanding this, deprived as it is of communications, of any source of information in the outside world, without direct contact with the tens of millions of Italians who live abroad or with its representatives in other countries, without, in a word, those elementary attributes of liberty which on our part we yet intend to introduce into our country.
And it is for this reason that I permit myself to turn directly to you, Mr. President, in order that being aware above all of the numerous, grave and painful difficulties which beset the Italian nation, of the firm purpose of my government and myself to fight at your side against the common enemy, of my desire to give the country those free democratic institutions which form your strength, you may continue to find inspiration for your actions in our regard in those standards of human equity of which you undoubtedly are among the greatest and most respected champions in the world.
- Badoglio addressed an identical letter to Prime Minister Churchill on the same date.↩