740.00119 EW/7–2546: Airgram
The Chargé in Italy (Key) to the Secretary of State
[Received, July 31—10:39 a.m.]
A–772. In note from Italian Foreign Minister it is urgently requested that following communication (in translation) be transmitted to Department and to United States delegation at Paris:
“The Italian Government and people have learned with profound regret and with profound bitterness that the Council of the Four Foreign Ministers has decided to accept integrally all the claims presented by the French Government regarding our Western frontier.
“The Italian Government points out that it has had the opportunity to express before the Four Foreign Ministers its point of view in a limited manner only regarding the claims on Tenda and Briga on which the Commission of Allied experts sent to the region has pronounced itself in a manner that seems to have been disregarded by the Conference.
“The Italian Government had already previously and explicitly declared that the examination of the question of French claims, among which certain ones (Montcenis Valley) are of extreme importance and significance, should have been permitted to it in a general and organic manner and not piecemeal. The Italian Government has furthermore sought to demonstrate its understanding and good will by indicating [Page 19] the sacrifices that it was voluntarily ready to make of territories that have belonged for centuries to the Italian family.
“The Italian Government is before its people duty-bound to declare that it considers questions relative to the Italian Western frontier still open; it reaffirms its conciliatory attitude in this regard together with its deep desire to reach a serious, honest, loyal agreement with France. It reserves the right to present on these bases before those committees that will be provided the terms of the solution which is the only one that can assure the free, orderly, progressive development of Italian and European democracy.”