500.A19/104: Telegram
The Ambassador in Italy ( Phillips ) to the Secretary of State
[Received 8:31 p.m.]
254. My 249, May 28, noon.22 A widely publicized editorial in Mussolini’s newspaper yesterday said it was inaccurate to refer to the Duce’s interview as an “invitation” to the President to convene a world conference, which would have been absurd. Simms having asked for a statement of views in the event the President decided to call a conference, Mussolini merely replied that such a move could be successful and that in any case Italy would support it adding just what the objectives for a successful conference should be. Disarmament or reduction of existing or projected armaments was impossible as shown both by the fiasco of the last disarmament conference and by fierce militarism of the so-called Left parties in their desire to exterminate Fascism. The only practical thing was to see whether future armament programs could be limited both as to quality and quantity. A collective agreement on future limitation would eliminate the tragic alternative of world war or general economic and social collapse.
After denying that Italy is pleading for an agreement because she can not stand the pace and asserting that Italy’s already formidable armaments are being methodically increased day by day, the newspaper says that all chances for peace are being systematically destroyed by the “Left parties”. Those parties when the so-called dictators are silent say they are hatching plots against peace; and when they declare their readiness to negotiate a real peace they are accused either of trying to lull suspicions or being driven by financial distress. “As to Italy, having seen the futility of any attempt at agreement she will continue her preparations. The Italian people ardently desire peace but they have shown and will do so again if necessary that they are ready to relinquish peace if their interests or future are at stake.”
The Vatican daily newspaper yesterday said that since competitive armaments inevitably lead to war or economic disaster any effort toward limitation on the part of anyone—whomsoever—must be encouraged. The task today requires renewed courage and far more determination [Page 661] than in the past especially since the already existing disproportion of forces has been accentuated both as to present armaments and future programs by the gigantic British rearmament scheme. The newspaper indicates limitation to the status quo as the only feasible first step. It also draws attention to the fact that Mussolini has in the past proposed limitation on the basis of the status quo and that Roosevelt has several times strongly attacked those countries that make a cult of rearmament. In conclusion it indicates as factors for success in such an initiative the world prestige of the United States “deriving from the popularity of its methods, its opposition to war, its vast network of economic relations”; the fact that the appeal is addressed to the American President not to Geneva; and the reiterated Italian declaration against the convening of conferences without assurance of success.
- Not printed.↩