765.84/876: Telegram
The Chargé in Italy (Kirk) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 20—9:25 a.m.]
501. Department’s 136, August 18, 1 p.m., and my 500, August 19, 1 p.m. I took occasion last night to hand to Suvich a copy of the message which I had given to Mussolini in the morning and emphasized the fact that it would not be given to the press by the Department. Suvich asked me what Mussolini had said and I answered that he had declared “It is now too late” but I did not go into further details. Suvich, after referring briefly to Italy’s complaints against [Page 744] Abyssinia, said that the entire case would be presented to the League and repeated assertions consistently expressed by Foreign Office officials to that [the?] effect that Italy did not wish to leave the League.
Marriner has repeated to me his 704, August 19, 11 a.m. and 710, August 17 [19], 6 p.m. to the Department.66 Up to the present there has been no inquiry from press circles here as to any step on the part of the American Government in connection with the Italian-Ethiopian conflict.
Not repeated elsewhere.
- Neither printed.↩