852.00/2714: Telegram
The Chargé in Italy (Kirk) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 20—3:14 p.m.]
339. My 336, August 18, 5 p.m. The French Ambassador was received by the Minister for Foreign Affairs yesterday and although no definite conclusions were reached the Ambassador left with the impression that progress was being made in the negotiations relating to the declaration of “non-intervention”. The recent statements by members of the French Government which are regarded in Italy as contrary to the policy of “moral neutrality” which the Italian Government has professed in the face of the Spanish conflict are believed to have impeded the negotiations here but the impression now prevails at least in French circles that an agreement on some declaration in the nature of the French proposal may now conceivably be reached. In his conversation with the French Ambassador yesterday the Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs is said to have reduced the Italian requirements on the matter of indirect aid to the contending parties in Spain to stipulations whereby the declaratory governments would agree in the first place to embargo the actual despatch of money to Spain and in the second place to prevent the departure of men to Spain from their territories. Discussions as to whether these stipulations if agreed upon would be added to the French draft declaration or whether they would take the form of a separate agreement in order to allow the original draft already circulated to stand, do not yet appear to have taken any definite form but the impression prevails that if the French Government can bring itself to treat the Italian requirements from a practical standpoint the hitherto conflicting views may be reconciled. In general there is growing tendencies to believe that unless the statements made by Italian officials are deliberately misleading the Italian Government for its part is recognizing the importance of arriving speedily at some agreement on a declaration of nonintervention in the Spanish conflict accompanied by such measures as may be found practicable to limit interference therein from abroad. [Page 501] As a further indication of that attitude the Minister for Foreign Affairs is quoted as having expressed himself as critical of the German reply to the French formula in that it stipulated conditions precedent to an adherence to the proposed declaration.
The Italian press continues to reflect the policy of “moral neutrality” in the face of the Spanish situation by refraining from publishing direct editorial comment (see my 311, August 4, 6 p.m., second paragraph). The presentation of news items relating to the conflict, however, continues to be pro-insurgent and the papers published at length and conspicuously the reports of material aid from foreign countries (see my 314, August 5, last paragraph). These latter reports as affecting France are treated with special emphasis and are clearly directed against the policy of the French Government in that regard as well as in regard to expression of sympathy with the Madrid Government emanating from French official sources.