The Pittsburgh Press (July 29, 1943)
Italy gets surrender terms
Immediate peace offered by Eisenhower; hints negotiations begun
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer
Allied HQ, North Africa –
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean, formally offered today to make an immediate and honorable peace with Italy and implied that negotiations may already be in progress.
“Cease at once all assistance to German Armed Forces in Italy,” he said in a special message to the Italian people, and the Allies will “rid you of the Germans and deliver you from the horrors of war.”
The only remaining obstacle to peace is the “German aggressor who is still on Italian soil,” he said in hinting that the Allies were willing to recognize Marshal Pietro Badoglio, the new Italian chief of government, and King Victor Emmanuel III as responsible parties with whom to deal.
London sources said that the next 100 hours may bring a showdown in the Italian crisis.
Condition already given
“Honorable conditions” for peace have already been given the Italian government by the United States and Britain, Gen. Eisenhower said. This and the fact that Gen. Eisenhower’s message was far more conciliatory than either President Roosevelt or Prime Minister Churchill’s speech during the past two days strengthened a belief that preliminary peace negotiations may already be underway.
The “honorable conditions” were believed to follow the pattern of unconditional surrender laid down by President Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill at their Casablanca Conference and the Four Freedoms outlined in the Atlantic Charter.
Secretary of State Cordell Hull, expressing confidence in Gen. Eisenhower, indicated today that the U.S. expects Italy’s surrender to be through military rather than diplomatic channels. Repeating that the policy of the United Nations is the unconditional surrender of Axis forces, Mr. Hull told a press conference that the War Department rather than the State Department would be the first to receive news of any Italian capitulation.
Offers prisoner return
Gen. Eisenhower also held out to the Italian people the promise of a “mild and beneficent” occupation and the return of all Italian prisoners captured in Sicily and Tunisia provided Allied prisoners are restored intact.
The British alone hold at least 410,000 Italian prisoners and tens of thousands of others are in American hands, while only 70,000 British and a comparatively small number of Americans have fallen into Italian hands.
The offer to return Italian prisoners was believed an especially powerful one, since many Italian soldiers have been away from home five to six years. Furthermore, Germany’s refusal to release French prisoners has long been a major factor in compelling the Vichy government to do Nazi bidding in vain attempts to gain freedom for their imprisoned soldiers.
The Allied commander told the Italians that his armies were coming to Italy as “liberators.”
The message was broadcast to the Italian people in Italian and also relayed to Europe in French, German and English.
Heavy jamming marred the initial broadcast to Italy, London reported.
Gen. Eisenhower congratulated the House of Savoy on overthrowing Premier Benito Mussolini, “the man who involved them in war as the tool of Hitler and brought them to the verge of disaster.”
He continued:
The greatest obstacle which divided the Italian people from the United Nations has been removed by the Italians themselves. The remaining obstacle on the road to peace is the German aggressor who is still on Italian soil.
Can have it immediately
You want peace. You can have peace immediately and peace under the honorable conditions which our governments have already offered you.
Gen. Eisenhower said that the Allies have already demonstrated in Sicily that any occupation of the Italian mainland would be “mild and beneficent.”
He said:
Your men will return to their normal life and to their productive avocations.
If the Italians prevent the Germans from taking captured Britons and Americans from Italy, Gen. Eisenhower said, hundreds of thousands of Italian prisoners captured in Tunisia “will return to the countless Italian homes who long for them.”
He said:
The ancient liberties and traditions of your country will be restored.