763.72/3170½
The Ambassador in Italy (Page) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 14.]
My Dear Mr. Secretary: Night before last I was called on by a gentleman who had received from the Vatican a very interesting memorandum in regard to the views of the latter on the Allies’ note to the President in reply to his note of December 18th, although more specifically it related to Mr. Balfour’s note of explanation and endorsement of the Allies’ note.66 The substance of this memorandum I sent you in a confidential telegram yesterday morning67 and I am writing you this so that you may show it to the President. I gave the substance of the memorandum in my telegram, but there were one or two interesting things mentioned by the gentleman in question which were not in the written memorandum. This memorandum was first written out and given him, but the next morning he was recalled and was given permission to copy the memorandum, but had to leave the original, as indeed he had been told he must do, when it was first handed to him. He was told that Poincaré when Minister in 1912 promised Russia, in consideration of her support in France, that she should have Constantinople and the Straits, and that after Poincaré was elected President, he confirmed this promise in writing. Also that when in the autumn of 1914 the conference of the Allies took place in London at the time, I think it was, when England secured the promise from the Allies that no one would make a separate peace but that all would stand together to the end, Russia presented Poincaré’s written engagement,—that she should have Constantinople and the Straits,—and England had to yield to secure her engagement not to make a separate peace.
I have read in the press in the last few days that the Vatican got the Spanish Ambassador in Washington to call on the President and assure him of the Vatican’s entire sympathy with his recent move to ascertain the terms of the Allies in the hope of leading eventually to peace, yet at the same time the press here has been commenting constantly on the Pope’s entire abstention from any reference to the President’s step in the allocution which the former made here the day before Christmas and his failure in such a discourse to refer to the President has been generally accepted as evidence that he did not approve of the President’s step. On the side many have drawn the inference therefrom that the Pope is working with Spain to be, if possible, selected as the arbiter when the peace conference shall [Page 751] assemble; but in any event to be recognized and have a seat in that conference. I have given you the information which has come to me, not because I do not appreciate the futility of the curiously antiquated sort of intriguing diplomacy which it exemplifies, but because I think it shows very clearly that the Vatican is working with all its power for Austria. The contention set forth in the memorandum which came to me and which I telegraphed you is undoubtedly true; the handing over to Russia of all the provinces therein listed with the cession of Constantinople and the Dardanelles will undoubtedly give her tremendous, if not overwhelming, power in Europe and make her very strong in the Orient. The whole tone of this memorandum, however, is against England and, incidentally, her allies, who accede to this programme. It was said, indeed, in the memorandum that England does not dare to present the true program which she has in mind to Europe and therefore has violently protested against the cruelty of the Turks against the Armenians, et cetera.
The gentleman told me that the Vatican keeps, he believes, absolutely informed of every move that is made in the whole field of present diplomacy and he believes that the Vatican knows just what terms Germany and Austria would be willing to make peace on. I am sure that the Vatican used certain influences during the last electoral campaign in America, on account of the President’s attitude with regard to Mexico, to withdraw from the President the support of representatives of the church in America.
The newspapers here are filled all the time with stories of the troubled conditions existing in Germany and Austria. Thoughtful men, however, who are not swayed by prejudice think that Germany can hardly be starved out, but the very general impression is that Austria is in a very bad way indeed. I myself, remembering the days of my childhood in the South, am skeptical as to the people’s being forced to yield because of the scarcity of even the necessaries of life.
I have written the foregoing to you, not only for yourself, but thinking this the most confidential way to have it reach the President.
Believe me [etc.]
- For Mr. Balfour’s note, see Foreign Relations, 1917, supp. 1, p. 17.↩
- Telegram No. 800, Jan. 21, 1917, ibid., p. 22.↩