740.0011 Four Power Pact/61
The Ambassador in Italy (Garrett) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 2.]
Sir: With reference to my despatch No. 1868 of April 7, 1933,34 with regard to Italy and the Four-Power Pact, I have the honor to inform the Department that according to Foreign Office circles the suggestions in connection therewith of the Governments concerned have now been formulated and submitted and that henceforth negotiations thereon will be conducted through regular diplomatic channels. As intimated in my telegram No. 22 of April 14, 7 p.m.,34 the opinion in Italian official circles is that the French memorandum by no means bars the way to the conclusion of the Four-Power Pact.
Meanwhile the press has been forbidden to comment on the progress of negotiations on the Four-Power Pact and the subject is rarely even mentioned. The adverse speeches made in the House of Commons recently have been entirely ignored, the newspapers confining themselves to publishing Sir John Simon’s defense, which, when taken alone, does not suggest that keen opposition to the Four-Power Pact seems to have developed in certain British quarters.
The Italian press, in fact, has declared a holiday for the moment on its usual attacks against France, Yugoslavia, and the Little Entente. With the exception of Mussolini’s article on the subject of the Little Entente and treaty revision written for the Hearst newspapers in the United States and published in every newspaper in Italy on April 13th with flaming headlines, almost no political editorials of any kind have appeared recently. Mussolini’s article contains nothing new and its chief significance lies in the fact that France is not even mentioned therein. Heretofore the Italian press has never lost an opportunity to accuse France of being responsible for the constitution and activities of the Little Entente.
Respectfully yours,