740.00/206
Memorandum by the Ambassador in Italy (Phillips)46
I called upon Count Ciano this afternoon to say goodbye before leaving Rome tomorrow on brief leave in the United States. I told him that as I would see the President and the Secretary of State in the near future, I should be delighted to carry to them any message which he might care to send. The Minister referred very sympathetically to the President and to his accomplishments, and then asked me to say that the Italian Government would view with the utmost sympathy any effort made by the President to assure European peace and that should the President be able to take the initiative, Italy would do everything in her power to lend her support.
I said that I assumed from the general current reports that the Duce was planning a visit to Germany. Ciano told me in the strictest confidence that these reports were correct but that no one had been advised as yet of the date of the visit, which was scheduled, he added, for September 25th. Mussolini would spend one day at Munich, one day at the German Army maneuvers, and two days in Berlin. Ciano [Page 122] himself would accompany the Duce and there would be, in addition, a large group of high Italian army officers. Inasmuch as I was the only person to whom Ciano had given this information, he asked me to regard it with the utmost secrecy, which of course I promised to do.
I asked whether there was any new diplomatic undertaking involved which would result from the visit to Berlin, to which Ciano replied that there would be no new written accord of any character and it was uncertain even whether there would be any communiqué issued after the Berlin conversations.
Referring to the Far Eastern situation, I said that I had gathered the impression from something said in the German press that there was a little less enthusiasm on the part of Germany towards Japan as a result of the Japanese attack on Shanghai and the great number of civilians killed through promiscuous bombing. Count Ciano replied that he had not seen anything in the Italian press to this effect, that he was confident that there had been no change on the part of Germany towards Japan, and that as a matter of fact, he added, there was a far closer understanding between the German and Japanese Governments than appeared on the surface. Of this he said he was very certain, although he did not seem ready to give any further elucidation and I thought it best for the moment not to press him for further enlightenment.
With regard to the Ethiopian situation, Count Ciano did not know whether the problem would be settled at the forthcoming League meeting. He said that all that Italy asked would be a refusal on the part of the League to seat the Ethiopian delegation, which would be tantamount to recognition that the Ethiopian Empire no longer existed. After this action, each member Government would be free to give recognition or not to the new Italian Empire.
Ciano had nothing to say of any particular interest with regard to the Spanish situation other than to recall to my mind that he had predicted at our last interview the fall of Santander and that this had come about a few days after our conversation.
With regard to the new Chinese-Soviet non-aggression agreement which, according to the press, has recently been signed, Count Ciano felt that this was of considerable importance as a further indication of the Soviet influence on the Chinese Government. He told me of a recent conversation he had had with my Soviet Colleague, during which he told Stein quite frankly that the Soviets could never succeed in communizing China and this for two reasons: (1) the instinct of every Chinese to possess his own house or trade, in other words, his love of the dollar; and (2) the powerful influence of the family ties. Furthermore, Ciano had said to Stein that while the Soviets might be successful temporarily in demoralizing China, causing unrest in [Page 123] various localities, they could only do so temporarily because the fundamental characteristic of the Chinese was non-communistic.
- Transmitted to the Department by the Ambassador in his despatch No. 555, September 2; received September 13.↩