740.0011 Mutual Guarantee (Mediterranean)/44
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Western European Affairs (Moffat)
The Spanish Ambassador21 called this morning and asked if we had any news with regard to the Mediterranean Pact which was alleged to have been discussed by Mr. Barthou during his recent European negotiations. I replied that our information was of the vaguest. In general we understood that the French desired to inaugurate a series of interlocking security pacts of which Locarno was the first and the so-called Eastern Locarno was to be the second. While one heard references in general terms to a Balkan Pact or a Mediterranean Pact, I thought that these could for the present be regarded as pious aspirations rather than concrete plans. We had been interested to note that Italy, which a few weeks ago opposed the idea of all regional pacts, was now giving it a rather distant blessing in the case of the proposed “Eastern Locarno”.
The Ambassador said that Madrid was naturally extremely interested and that if at any time we had any information which we could properly pass on, he hoped we should do so.
- Luis Calderón.↩