File No. 763.72/1593

The Ambassador in Austria-Hungary (Penfield) to the Secretary of State

[Telegram]

558. Following my cipher telegram Friday last I can now advise you on high authority that no agreement yet reached with Italy. Conversations in Vienna proceeding at high pressure with all responsible ministers and interested ambassadors. It is admitted Italy has been offered Trentino but makes no promise of continued neutrality. Italy is reported to have received offer from France of Corsica and one half of Tunis as an inducement to join Allies. The German Ambassador assures me Germany contemplates no territorial concessions to Austria as reported. If Trentino ceded to Italy, it will be considered as compensation for some Balkan disappointment of former years. This condition proposed in hopes of swaying Emperor who refuses gratuitously to alienate a province.

Penfield