500.A15 a 1/56
Memorandum by the Under Secretary of State (Grew)
The Italian Ambassador referred to the Italian note17 declining to accept our proposal for a discussion at Geneva of naval armament limitation and read to me portions of two telegrams which he had received from Mussolini to the effect that if this Government would agree to “appuyer” the thesis of parity between Italy and France he, Mussolini, would re-examine our proposal. I said to the Ambassador that it was obviously out of the question for us to do anything of this kind, as we had very carefully abstained in our note from making any concrete suggestions concerning the relative positions of Italy and France which might give offense to one or the other and for that very reason we had left the matter entirely open and unprejudiced for discussion at the conference table, I said that we recognized Italy’s particular geographic situation and that this was another reason for our avoiding any concrete proposals which might prejudice the case in advance. The Ambassador then asked me to comment on the phrase “far-reaching building programs” and asserted that this could not be taken to apply to Italy which had embarked on no such program. I replied that the phrase was not intended to apply to any individual country, but was used in a general sense. The Ambassador then said that he had been instructed by Mussolini to endeavor to avoid any comment in the American press concerning Italian militarism and he asked me if I could not say a word to the press correspondents to the effect that Italy was not a militaristic nation. I replied that I thought that any statement of this kind would come better from the Ambassador than from the Department. The Ambassador then asked me if I had any comment to make in connection with Mussolini’s statement to Mr. Fletcher when he handed him the note. I said that I had no comment to make as it appeared to be similar to the instructions received by the Ambassador.