Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1939, General, Volume I

760C.62/1260: Telegram

The Ambassador in Italy (Phillips) to the Secretary of State

Rome, September 1, 1939—11 a.m.
[Received September 1—7:25 a.m.]

355. I am informed that yesterday the Italian Government made another effort to avoid disaster. During the morning Ciano⁴ proposed to the British Ambassador the calling of a conference of various European powers including Poland to consider all the clauses of the Treaty of Versailles⁵ which are the cause of existing European friction. This suggestion was transmitted to London and through London to Paris. I learn from the British Embassy that no official reply has yet been given. Daladier⁶ is understood to have told Phipps⁷ that he personally is strongly opposed to such a conference.

Phillips

4. Count Galeazzo Ciano di Cortellazzo, Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs.
5. Signed June 28, 1919, Foreign Relations, The Paris Peace Conference, 1919, vol. xiii, p. 55.
6. Édouard Daladier, President of the French Council of Ministers and Minister for National Defense.
7. Sir Eric Phipps, British Ambassador in France.