800.51W89 Italy/217
Memorandum by the Acting Secretary of State
The Italian Ambassador left with me this afternoon the accompanying text of a resolution voted by the Fascist Great Council today,13a in which the decision was taken to make a payment of $1,000,000 to show the “good will of the Italian Government.” The Ambassador assumes that he will be instructed to deliver a note, possibly tomorrow, along the following lines, that the payment will be made as an acknowledgment of the debt due, showing the incapacity of the Italian Government to meet its full payment and that he will make a request to start negotiations for a final solution of the problem as soon as possible.
After the Ambassador had left, I called up the President and told him of the decision of the Italian Government. He asked me to say to the Ambassador that the payment of $1,000,000 seemed to him very poor psychology, it was more like “tipping the waiter” than an “expression of good will” of the Italian Government.
I communicated by telephone at once with Mr. Rosso, explained to him the President’s reaction repeated his words and expressed the hope that a higher sum would be named; I cautioned him about using the words “good will of the Italian Government” in his formal communication if he could not succeed in raising the amount of the payment; the $1,000,000, I thought, would be regarded by the public at large, in the circumstances, as rather an unsatisfactory expression of good will.
- See infra.↩