Moscow Embassy Flies, Lot F–96
President Roosevelt to the Chairman of the Soviet Council of People’s Commissars (Stalin)10
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Why not send an officer to General Eisenhower’s headquarters in connection with the commission to sit in Sicily on further settlements with the Italians? He would join the British and Americans who are now working on this very subject.
There is no objection as far as I am concerned to adding a French member to this commission, as we are now in the midst of equipping ten or eleven of their divisions in North Africa. It would, however, be very unwise to let the French take part in the discussions relating to the military occupation of Italy. If the Italians go through with the terms of surrender, which they have already signed, I hope they will wholeheartedly support the occupation troops. On the whole, the Italians dislike the French greatly, and if we bring the French into occupation discussions, the civil and military elements in Italy will resent it extremely.
The problem of consulting the Greeks and Jugoslavs can be discussed later on.
- Transmitted in a letter from Ambassador Standley to Foreign Commissar Molotov, September 6, 1943, not printed. Mr. Molotov acknowledged receipt of the letter in a note dated September 7, and stated that “the message in question has been transmitted by me to its destination”.↩
- Other portions of this message are printed on p. 518, and in Foreign Relations, The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943, p. 23.↩