Foreign Relations of the United States, Diplomatic Papers, 1932, The Far East, Volume III

793.94/4009

Memorandum by the Secretary of State

[Washington,] February 4, 1932.

The Italian Ambassador came in to say that he had a telegram which he had been delayed in giving to me on account of his absence in New York. It was to the effect that Italy joined with us in making every effort to avoid the further developments of a conflict at Shanghai and to prevent a violation of the International Settlement. The Ambassador said they had sent from Italy the cruiser Trento, which was one of their new cruisers, and it had a lot of marines on it, and one big destroyer. He told me that Signor Mussolini’s daughter was the wife of the Chargé at Shanghai.⁵³ The Ambassador closed by saying that he feared that the prestige of the white race in the Orient had been greatly lowered by recent events. He enumerated: one, the failure of the Bank of England; two, bread lines in New York, and three, Germany pleading for financial help, and so on. He said that these were just the high points which the Oriental reader got.

H[enry] L. S[timson]

53. Count G. Ciano di Cortellazzo.