Memorandum of Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Foreign Minister of Italy Count Carlo Sforza, the Ambassador of Italy, and Others

IND por SECPET OLONE 98 DEPARTMENT OF STATE 204 Memorandum of Conversation DATE: March 29, 1949 SUBJECT: Ctnf PARTICIPANTS: Count Sforza, Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs The Italian Ambassador The Secretary Mr. Hickerson, EUR Mr. Dowling, SWE COPIES TO: U s G NEA ARCHIVES NATIONAL RECORDS AND AF SWE 1-1492 At the end of his call this afternoon, Count Sforza referred to the disposition of the former Italian colonies, which is to be decided at the April session of the General Assembly. He said that he had never been interested in colonies, but that he was very much interested in the development of Africa. European stupidity, he said, had permitted a large part of the Far East to be lost to the West in the sense that this area could no longer be counted upon for world cooperation, and he felt it all the more important that Africa not be lost also. This meant that Africa must be developed wisely and well, and he felt the Italian people were best able to provide the technical and physical effort which this development would require. Sforza added that in addition to his own ideas on this subject he had had to keep in mind, as Foreign Minister, the attachment of the Italian people to their former pos- sessions in Africa. He had already taken a stand, publicly as well as in the Italian Government, in favor of British trusteeship for Cyrenaica, basing his arguments on British strategic requirements and the general defense of the Mediterranean DECLASSIFIED E. O. 11652, Sec. 3(E) and 5(D) or (B) Dept. of State letter, 13-23035 By NLT- HC NARS Date 4-21-76 FOR SECRET.