Memorandum of Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Homer Byington, Chairman of the Italian Emergency Committee Dr. Clyde W. Taylor, and Others

- DECLASSIFIED 0973 E. O. 11652, Sec. 3(E) and S(D) or (E) Dept. of State letter, 10.1033 DEPARTMENT OF STATE Return to 28 281 Ba NLT- He NARS Date 10-29-36 miss MEMORANDUM OF CONVERSATION 998 GONT IDENTH September 18. 1952 Subject; Church of Christ in Italy Issue. Participants: The Secretary Mr. Homer M. Byington, Jr., WE Dr. Clyde W. Taylor, Chairman, Italian Emergency Committee Dr. Alvin W. Johnson, Director, International Religious Liberty Assoc. Dr. Frank H. Yost, Seventh-Day Adventist Rev. B. H. Hood, Pastor, Church of Christ, SE Washington Rev. Sam Durrance, Pastor, Church of Christ, Washington Dr. J. Walter Carpenter, Pastor, Metropolitan Baptist Church, D. c. Copies to: S EUR - (2) WE - Mr. Collins WE - Mr. Wm. Knight H - Mr. Brown P PL American Embassy, Rome Dr. Taylor expressed appreciation to the Secretary for receiving this dele- gation. They had come not in any sense to criticize the Department of State but to help in any way that they could in furnishing ammunition to the Department to ensure a satisfactory solution for the difficulties which had arisen in Italy in regard to the representatives there of the Church of Christ. He presented to the Secretary a resolution which had been drawn up and adopted at a meeting held in the office of the national association of Evangelicals on September 16. He stressed the high esteem in which the United States Government is held in Italy and the importance which representation on the part of the United States Govern- ment could have in persuading the Italian Government to withdraw the discrimina- tory regulations preventing freedom of worship on the part of the missionaries in Italy of the Church of Christ. He said that the basic difficulty lay in the refusal of the Italian Government to nullify the laws of 1928 and 1929 which were adopted by the Mussolini regime following the Concordat with the Vatican State. He said these laws were the cause of all the trouble and were in direct violation of the Italian constitution which provided freedom of worship in Italy. The Secretary said that he had not been informed regarding the specific legal question involved but that he would like to explain the situation as it now stood. The Department had been informed by the Imbassy at Rome that it was in close touch with Dr. Paden and that a full statement by Dr. Paden was being rushed here by pouch. The Embassy had reported in summary that Dr. Paden's statement declared that up to now Dr. Paden had, before opening a new congregation in a new CONPIDENTIAL