740.00116 E.W./10–344
The Department of State to the British Embassy
Memorandum
The Department has received the British Embassy’s aide-mémoire of October 3, 1944 (Ref. 152/153/44) regarding a letter received by the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from the Chairman of the United Nations War Crimes Commission concerning the problem of obtaining information from Italian sources in respect to war crimes committed by Italians. Mr. Eden’s suggestion is noted that the Allied Commission in Italy would be the appropriate body to assist the War Crimes Commission in this matter. His suggestion is also noted that the matter be raised in the Advisory Council for Italy simultaneously with the question of the War Crimes Commission’s competence for dealing with German crimes against Italians.
The Department agrees that the matter should be discussed by the Advisory Council. It is informed that the representatives on the Council have in fact been invited by the British representative thereon to ascertain the views of their respective governments so that the question can be discussed at the Council’s next meeting on October 20.
This Department and the War and Navy Departments also agree with Mr. Eden’s suggestion put forward in the British aide-mémoire that the Allied Commission in Italy would be the appropriate body to assist in the matter and that if the War Crimes Commission’s requirements in particular cases were communicated to the Allied Commission either through the Combined Chiefs of Staff and the Supreme Allied Commander Mediterranean or through the British Government and the British Resident Minister Central Mediterranean, the Allied Commission could doubtless insure the Italian Government’s compliance with the War Crimes Commission’s requirements.
Mr. Kirk, the United States representative on the Council, is being instructed along the lines indicated above.14
- Telegram 292, October 16, 1944, 10 p.m., not printed.↩