Mr. Meyer to Mr. Hay.
Rome, January 2, 1903.
Sir: I have the honor to confirm herein your cable of date December 31, 1902.
Immediately upon receipt I communicated the contents of this cable to the minister for foreign affairs in a note dated January 1, and I have to-day received a reply thereto, copy of which I inclose with translation, elated also January 1, and in which the minister for foreign affairs, Sign or Prinetti, requests me to transmit to the President the thanks of the Government of Italy for his good offices, and declares that in principle the Government of the King has no objection, as heretofore stated, to referring their claims to the arbitration of The Hague. The minister says further that on other points the Italian Government is communicating with the cabinets of Berlin and London.
[Page 607]The contents of this note were duly transmitted to you in my telegram of this morning.
A matter which may be of interest to the Department, bearing on this subject, is the attitude taken by Italian socialists in reference to the Venezuela affair. It is rumored here that they are exchanging views with the socialists of other countries in order to reach a common understanding as regards the attitude to be taken by them in connection with the Venezuela affair. For this reason, it is said, Signor Bissolati, a member of Parliament and editor of the socialist paper Avanti, has not yet arranged the text of his announced interrogation in the Chamber of Deputies, wishing first to communicate with his colleagues abroad. The socialist programme seems to be to draw the attention of the governments to the fact that although the European powers adhered to and approved The Hague conference and pledged themselves by article 27 to have recourse to that arbitration tribunal, in the Venezuela affair three of them resorted to force and only consented to arbitration after the United States interfered.
I am, etc.,