852.00/4292: Telegram
The Ambassador in Italy ( Phillips ) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 7—1:32 p.m.]
8. My 7, January 6, 3 p.m.4 Yesterday Ciano5 sent for Drummond6 and while he did not inform him of the contents of the Italian reply which is expected to be handed to the British Ambassador this afternoon he discussed the Italian attitude towards the Spanish situation. He said that the Italian Government would willingly agree to stop all Italian volunteers and to withdraw from Spain those already arrived if the governments of France, Russia and Belgium which he described as the principal countries involved on the other side, would take similar action. Drummond was impressed by Ciano’s very evident desire to go as far as possible to avoid further European complications and seemed especially pleased at the assurance that this is the Duce’s very definite wish. On the other hand Ciano also made it clear that unless this course was adopted by the other countries Italy was prepared to go as far and even further than the others in permitting volunteers to leave.
The conversation ended in a mutual expression of desire to cooperate wholeheartedly in the interests of peace and that the recent British-Italian Mediterranean accord7 was after all the foundation [Page 217] upon which the two Governments could work closely in general matters of European peace.
- Not printed.↩
- Count Galeazzo Ciano di Cortellazzo, Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs.↩
- Sir Eric Drummond, British Ambassador in Italy.↩
- British Cmd. 5348, Italy No. 1 (1937): Declaration by His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom and the Italian Government Regarding the Mediterranean [With an Exchange of Notes Regarding the Status Quo in the Western Mediterranean Dated December 81, 1936], Rome January 2, 1937. ↩