-3- #660, Eighteenth from London              
 
                                                            
 
 
food by the retreating Germans - hungry upon the fragile structure 
      of the Italian Government in Rome, with consequences which cannot 
       be accurately foreseen, and certainly not measured.  
 
      Now necessary it is for Britain and the United States, who bear 
      the chief responsibilities, to maintain the closest and most 
      intimate contact in the solution of all these new problems. Let 
      me say once and for all that we have no political combinations, 
      in Europe or elsewhere, in respect of which we need Italy as 
      a party. We need Italy no more than we need Spain, because we 
      have no designs, which require the support of such powers. We 
      must take care that all the blame of things going wrong is not 
      thrown on us. This, I have no doubt, can be provided against, 
        and to some extent I am providing against it now.   
 
                                                            
 
 
We have one principle about the liberated countries, or the 
      repentant satellite countries, which we strive for according 
      to the best of our ability and resources. Here is the principle. 
      I will state it in the broadest and most familiar terms: Government 
      of the people by the people, for the people set up on a basis 
      of free and universal suffrage election, with secrecy of the 
      ballot and no intimidation. That is and has always been the policy