765.84/4397
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
The Italian Ambassador called on his own initiative and stated that his Government had instructed him to notify me in accordance with a memorandum, quoted below,91 which the Ambassador then proceeded to hand to me.
The Ambassador said that his Government had further instructed him to make certain oral explanations relative to the speedy and, what I inferred from the language of the Ambassador to be, the premature action of the Italian Government in proclaiming the annexation of Ethiopia with the Italian King as Emperor of that country. The idea he sought to convey was that a state of more or less anarchy and looting, with killing and injuring of people, had been existing in Ethiopia after the departure of the Ethiopian Government and before the arrival of Italian troops in Addis Ababa and certain other centers of population. There was not much substance to his explanation. He branched off a little further in this general direction, but in a broader [Page 230] way, with some comment relative to the manner in which Italy at this stage is misunderstood both at Geneva and elsewhere in the world; and that in due course the motives of Italy and the many special circumstances which are not generally understood and known at present will become known to other nations and Italy then will not be subjected to the same viewpoint by others that she now is to a more or less extent.
I simply thanked the Ambassador when he handed me the written memorandum and also when he concluded his somewhat rambling and scattering oral statement.
He then remarked that his Government realized it was too early for consideration to be given to these matters by us or others; that he understood perfectly that I was not expected to offer any comment at this stage. I again thanked him for what he was saying and indicated that I understood perfectly the idea he was expressing—the fact that no comment was expected at this time.
- Memorandum dated May 11, 1936, supra.↩