793.94 Conference/132: Telegram
The Chargé in Germany ( Gilbert ) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 29—11:45 a.m.]
259. I learn in confidence from the Italian Embassy that the purpose of Ribbentrop’s7 visit to Rome was, (1)—discuss with the Italian Foreign Office the position which Italy would take at the Nine Power Conference8 in its relationship to German policy; (2)—to “arrange” Italy’s entry into an anti-Communist pact with Japan.
In respect of (2) I was further informed that Italy now definitely intends to become a party to such a pact and that the only point which remains to be determined is whether Rome would sign a separate pact with Japan or adhere to the existing German-Japanese agreement.
In addition to the foregoing I was only able to learn that the time which Rome might choose to take this action remains uncertain and [Page 609] that, of course, it was still not necessarily entirely excluded that some circumstance might intervene to effect a change in Rome’s present intentions.
I may say that I am somewhat at a loss to evaluate this information in a manner to reconcile it with advices of a different tenor received from other quarters.
Repeated to Brussels for American delegation and to Rome, Moscow. Copies by mail to Paris, London.
- Joachim von Ribbentrop, German Ambassador in the United Kingdom.↩
- For correspondence concerning the Brussels Conference, see vol. iv, pp. 1 ff.↩