Russo-Italian Diplomatic Relations Resumed

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 61, 15 March 1944, Page 5

Russo-Italian Diplomatic Relations Resumed

ALLIES STUDYING FAR-REACHING EFFECTS Received Tuesday, 6.50 p.m. LONDON, taaren 14. It is officially announced in Naples tiiat Russiau-italian diplomatic rela tions will oe resumed and Amoassadors will be exchanged. Marshal Badoglio, in a message to Marshal Stalin, said: “The wtioie xtalian nation is convinced of the desirability of bringing Russo-ifcaiiau relations bacis to the basis of constructive and friendly cooperation which was temporarily and tragically abandoned by the regime we are together fighting to-day.” Reuter's Naples correspondent says it is understood that Italy’s request to resume diplomatic relations was addessed to Britain and the United States as well as Russia. “The restoration of Russian-Italian diplomatic relations will clearly rein force Marshal Badoglio’s position,” says the Times’ diplomatic correspondent, but it has mufh wider implications and the Allies will doubtless conier on the whole problem. The restoration of Russian-italian diplomatic relations has resulted from Italian initiative taken sometime ago, says the Times’ Naples correspondent. “The full implications of the Soviet decision to recognise the Badoglio Government are not understood in Washington,” says the Washington correspondent of the New York Times. “On the face of it, it is apparently another interesting move in Soviet foreign policy of which there have been numerous instances since the Moscow and Teheran conferences, including the spreading of rumours oi British-American peace manoeuvres, the denunciation of the Vatican as proI'ascist, Russia’s insistence on settling the Polish question without BritisnAmerican aid, and the modification of the Soviet Constitution for the conduct of foreign affairs. “The latest decision apparently means that Moscow concurs witn British-American policy in having dealt with Marshal Badoglio. Britisn American relations, however, have been less than a full diplomatic recognition. The State Department has issued a statement that Marshal Badoglio ha 3 not asked America for diplomatic recognition of his regime.