The President of the Italian Council of Ministers (Bonomi) to President Roosevelt 81
Mr. President: Ever since the very first days of my advent to the government it has been my intention to contact you directly, to express, above all, the vivid and profound sense of solidarity and admiration with which Italian democracy, living once again today after so many years of silence, follows your activity and your work.
If I do so at this time, though a few weeks have elapsed since the formation of the new government, I am hoping that you will be so kind as to attribute it both to my reluctance to deprive you of some of your time, more precious now than ever, and to my desire to wait for a propitious occasion, which presents itself only today, permitting me to write directly to you in a more lengthy manner than could be accomplished by a mere telegram.
You know that today my government is composed exclusively of men absolutely free from any fascist contamination, of the most authorized and representative exponents of the six Italian political parties, that is, of men with deep conviction and profound sincerity, all of whom are capable of bringing Italy back to the road of her best liberal and democratic traditions, for which, in fact, they have lived and suffered for twenty years.
All these men are counting a great deal upon your support and assistance. They are all perfectly aware of the fact that no one can be more disinterestedly close to them in this, our effort of material and spiritual reconstruction and elevation of the country, than the President of the great and free North American Republic.
They turn, therefore, to you, with great faith and great hope.
I do not wish to tell you that the conditions given to Italy at the time of the Armistice were unjust. I simply want to mention to you that almost a year after the Armistice, and with an Italy so transformed, these still prevailing conditions are becoming progressively graver and therefore more unjust.
[Page 1140]Why is it that, on the one hand, we are not allowed to participate with our own forces in the liberation of our national territory from German oppression as we would like to do, as we could do and as would be morally necessary for us to do; and why, on the other hand, is that free development of our democratic life, the very condition of our salvation, denied us with excessive controls, excessive interference and excessive burden of occupation.
In these last few days, with the help of my old friend Marshal Badoglio, I have prepared a summary82 in the form of a document which I am forwarding to you by a personal and secret means. This document points out the greatest difficulties, the stumbling blocks and the gravest obstacles which we have found in our path during these eight months of cobelligerency. It is an elaborate document based upon data and material for the most part official but nevertheless unpublished.
I trust you will be able to peruse it and have it studied by your subordinates in a more thorough manner. Above all, I trust that you will be able to find in it, the incentive and the inspiration for gesture and an initiative of human generosity which would give, to the new Italian democracy, the feeling that fascism is as dead internationally as it is dead in the hearts of the Italians, and which would finally allow us that determination and that impetus, devoid of humiliation and impotence, which we need so much in order to meet, with greater energy, the difficult tasks that await us.
The enthusiasm with which the North American troops have been received in Rome has certainly conveyed to you, more than any affirmation on my part, the spirit and fervor with which a people of 45 million souls looks to the United States and to its President. The Italian people have undergone indescribable sufferings and will continue to suffer. However, they are a sane, honest and solid people to whom credit can be given. Their activity and industriousness will be necessary to the reconstruction of Europe. Every aid and assistance which will be given them in this dark hour will certainly be a constructive deed towards the free world of tomorrow.
I repeat, Mr. President, that the free men who today govern Italy look to you with great faith and great hope.
In conclusion, it is superfluous for me to tell you with what admiration we follow, in these days, the gigantic effort directed by you which has brought North American troops to French soil and with what complete solidarity, Mr. President, we send you our most cordial and warm best wishes.
I beg you to believe in my sincerest sentiments.