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{
    "localId": "183390401",
    "label": "Memorandum of Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Foreign Minister of Italy Carlo Sforza, John Hickerson, and Dean Rusk",
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    "id": "183390401",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Memorandum of Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Foreign Minister of Italy Carlo Sforza, John Hickerson, and Dean Rusk",
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    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 18,
            "logicalDate": "1949-04-18",
            "month": 4,
            "year": 1949
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{
    "seq": 2,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
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    "ocrText": "3.\nTOP STORE\nSLUIIL\n- ARCHIVES \"MATIONAL RECOROS AND\nE\n-2-\nincluding Italy. He said that he had taken the lesd in this\nnovement including, of course, Italy's participation in the\nNorth Atlantic Pact and the Council for Europe. lie said more-\nover, that he had personally sponsored the economic union between\nItaly and France. He said that all of these things stand on\ntheir own merit and are wholly independent of the question of\nthe disposition of the former Italian colonies. He added, however,\nthat he had felt, and he had no doubt many Italians supporting\nthese measures had felt, that Italy's playing such a role would\ntend to result in a nora syapathetic consideration of Italian\nclaims in connection with the colonies.\nCount Sforza went on to say that he had been much discouraged\nby the discussions in New York and that he had to ask himself\nif he had made a mistake in judgment for which he should be pre-\npared to assume responsibility. he said that the Italian reaction\nto what they would regerd in Italy as an unfair settlement of the\ncolonial question would be vory badly received, and that somebody\nwould have to assume responsibility for this. He said that\ndeGasperie must continue as Prime Minister and that he had been\nturning over in his mind whether or not in the light of this that\nhe, Count Sforza, should not resign if the colonial question is\nsettled on such a basis that Italian public opinion cannot sup-\nport it.\nI commented at once that I was unaware of any mistake that\nCount Sforzs had made in connection with these matters; that as he\ncorrectly said, his support of the measures which be had mentioned\nwas in Italy's interest on the merits of the respective matters\nand had no connection whatever with the colonies. I told him that\nI hoped that he would not therefore feel called upon to resign\nbecause of any solution of the colonial problera which the Italian\npeople did not like I went on to say that there were enormous\ndifficulties in connection with the problem of former Italian\ncolonies and that me and other members of the General Assembly\nhad found it difficult to determine what the final solution should\nbe. I said that we understood the Italian interest in this whole\nproblem but that we were conscious of considerations on the\nother side and of arguments against the views entertained by the\nItalian Government. I added that in Tripolitania, for instance,\nwe have received information which makes us frankly doubtful\nwhether Italy could essume the responsibility of administering\nauthority without resistance on the part of the native population\nand perhaps bloodshed. Count Sforza said that he had no doubt\nthat if there could be a feir plebecite in Tripolitania and\nEritrea a majority of the population would prefer to see Italy\nas administering authority.\nCount\nTOP SECHE"
}