MEMORANDUM OF CONFERENCE                  
 
               WITH PRIME MINISTER BONOMI AT                
 
            HIS INVITATION AT THE CACCIA CLUB ON            
 
                 MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1944                  
 
                                                            
 
 
1. The difficulty in securing action after projects have been discussed
  and agreed upon is very embarrassing to the government.   
 
                                                            
 
 
2. The most urgent problems facing the government are means of   
transportation for food for Rome which by January will become a very   
serious menace. This results from the fact that for six years the   
population of Italy and of the Rome section particularly have been   
severely and increasingly rationed to an extent that nmdical opinion   
indicates that the vitality of the people especially in the poorer
classes   
is so reduced that a severe vrlnter lacking additional food, proper   
clothing and adequate shelter will give rise to tragic consequences.   
Second, in southern Italy where most of the villages brave been
destroyed   
there is as yet no provision for temporary housing and the poorer
classes   
who have no alternative shelter and who have largely been living in an
improvised fashion during the heated summer months will be in a most   
dangerous situation for they too have been suffering from the same food
deficiencies prevalent in the Rome area and part icdlarly throughout
Italy   
south of the industrial section which has the advantage of the
productive   
area adjacent to the Po River, there being no similar productive area,
         except for grain, in the southern section.         
 
                                                            
 
 
2. The housing situation as above described can readily be remedied in
the   
opinion of the Prime Minister if an adequate, though for this
particular   
purpose a relatively small, number of trucks were made imediately   
available. He assured us that there were adequate supplies of all
materials necessary for these emergency structures which would be made
of concrete sections one story in height and designated by him as a
type of barracks which can be quickly constructed~ for the time element
now is one of the greatest importance. The Prime Y~inister indicated
also that there were adequate facilities for cement making in  
southern Italy. For this problem alone lO0 trucks would be adequate.
For   
the food situation in and about Rome and in southern Italy 400
additional   
trucks would be required. This figure is at variance with some of the
statements that I have heard where the demand was for several thousand
                          trucks.