811.001 Roosevelt F. D./4506½
President Roosevelt to the Chief of the Italian Government (Mussolini)26
My Dear Signor Mussolini: I have waited for many months to thank you for your gracious and much appreciated letter to me,27 [Page 663] which I found on my return from South America last December.28 I have delayed writing you because through all these months I have been hoping that the world situation would clarify sufficiently for me to discuss with you measures looking toward the stabilization of peace among nations.
But, unfortunately the situation today seems no clearer than before, and, indeed, in some aspects the drift of events has been toward and not away from an ultimate crisis.
I have been gratified in reading of your statements in favor of the principles of reduction of armament. As you know, the Secretary of State has had my full support in his effective efforts toward the increase of international trade and the lowering of barriers against trade.
Nevertheless, all of these efforts, even if they are joined by additional nations, and even if a greater total of world trade results in the coming years, will not prove a completely effective guarantee of international peace if world armament among the nations continues on its present scale.
The two things must go hand in hand. It seems clear to me that if the nations can agree on armament reduction, even if it be in the form of a progressive reduction over a period of years, they can far more effectively discuss practical instruments for reduction of trade barriers, thus building up employment in industry to take the place of employment in armament. And I recognize that as a part of the discussion of increasing trade, every consideration should be given to a more ready access to raw materials’ markets for those nations which in themselves do not produce the raw materials necessary to industry.
I am confident, my dear Duce, that you share with me the fear that the trend of the present international situation is ominous to peace. And I am confident that you share with me the desire to turn the course of the world toward stabilizing peace. I have often wished [Page 664] that I might talk with you frankly and in person because from such a meeting great good might come. But we both realize the great difficulties that stand in the way—international difficulties as well as the distances of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
I was very happy to learn that my youngest son, John, had the privilege of meeting you last week. I had charged him with conveying to you my very warm regards. Some day you and I must and shall meet in person.
Believe me, with every good wish,
Faithfully yours,
P. S. This is your birthday and I send you wishes for many happy returns of the day.
- Photostatic copy obtained from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N. Y.↩
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This letter read as follows: “My dear Mr. President, In the last three years I have often remembered our exchange of letters of 1933, and regretted that the course of events has not allowed the first contacts then established between ourselves to be pursued with the continuity which was in our intention.
It is therefore with the deepest satisfaction that I avail myself of the occasion presented by your triumphal reelection to the Presidency, to convey to you my warmest congratulations for this expression of universal approval that your great work has met with.
I also desire to express to you my very sincere wishes for the ever-greater prosperity, which—I am sure—the United States will achieve under your enlightened guidance.
Hoping that our relations, now re-established, may not undergo any further interruption, I am [etc.]
Mussolini
19. Novembre XV [November 19, 1936.]”
The letters of 1933 referred to in Mussolini’s letter were exchanged on the occasion of the presentation of letters of credence by Breckinridge Long as Ambassador to Italy; the President’s letter is not in the Department files; the reply transmitted on July 7, 1933, to the Department of State by the Italian Ambassador, is not printed (811.001 Roosevelt, F. D./660).
↩ - President Roosevelt participated in the opening session, December 1, 1936, of the Inter-American Conference for the Maintenance of Peace, at Buenos Aires (see Foreign Relations, 1936, vol. v, pp. 3 ff.), and returned to the United States on December 15.↩