Mr. Iddings to Mr. Hay.
Rome, October 7, 1902.
Sir: Referring to your instructions of August 11 and 12 last, and to my dispatch of September 6, I have the honor to report that Signor Prinetti, the minister for foreign affairs, being at the capital on Saturday [Page 685] last, I took occasion to see him, hoping to learn the Italian Government’s views in regard to the American note relative to the treatment of Jews in Roumania, a copy of which had been left with the minister on September 6. As I expected no official reply to the embassy’s informal communication, I asked if His Majesty’s Government had yet replied to the similar note presented by the British chargé d’affaires. Signor Prinetti answered that no reply had been sent; that the Italian Government was waiting to learn the attitude of the other powers, this being one of the matters in which this nation would follow the course of the other continental governments. He expressed no personal views, and appeared averse from doing so, saying that questions concerning Jews interested Italy very little, as there were comparatively few of them in the Kingdom. This lack of interest was indicated, he remarked, by the few comments on the matter in the daily press. The conversation then turned upon other subjects.
I am, etc.,