865.012/23
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State (Castle) of a Conversation With the Italian Ambassador (Martino)
The Italian Ambassador urged me to read an interview by Mussolini which came out in the January 27 number of the Christian Science Monitor. The interview is on the subject of naturalization and the Ambassador tells me that Mussolini has said just what he said to him in Rome.
In connection with this, he says that, of course, the general orders sent out to the Fascisti Society have made a good deal of talk here and that he has urged Mussolini, on account of special conditions in the United States, to make those orders not applicable in this country. In connection also with what Mussolini had to say about naturalization, the Ambassador said that the policy of Italy with regard to immigration laws has entirely changed, that, even if the American immigration laws were revised, at the present time Italy would not send her people to this country because they need them at home. He says that the process of drafting people on land which has not been cultivated is going on very successfully. He says also that the population is growing so fast that it is necessary to send some out of Italy and that the purpose is to send them to Mediterranean countries. This being the case, he said that it was inevitable that in from seven to fourteen years Italy would be facing a great crisis, that it had to have its place in the sun and that it was impossible to see what this crisis would develop. Clearly the Ambassador said it could not affect the United States because there would be no question of emigration to this country or any possibility that the United States might be involved in any trouble which might occur as a result of the Mediterranean colony policy.