711.00 Statement July 16, 1937/189: Telegram
The Ambassador in Italy (Phillips) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 13—4:25 p.m.]
371. Department’s 135, August 4, 6 p.m. Ciano read to me this afternoon the following oral statement in reply to your declaration of July 16:
“The Fascist Government appreciates at their high value the principles enunciated by Secretary of State Hull in his declaration of July 16, last. The Fascist Government has repeatedly and publicly proclaimed what are the fundamental principles of its policy and the [Page 786] Duce has recently reconfirmed them in the interview which he granted the American publisher Simms. The Fascist Government favors everything which may conduce to the pacification and to the political and economic reconstruction of the world. Therefore it regards with sympathy every initiative which tends to achieve that end by means of the limitation of armaments, by means of economic understanding among nations, nonintervention in the internal affairs of other countries and any other means which may now or in the future appear responsive to this objective.”
After reading the foregoing Ciano said he would also like you to know that he shares wholeheartedly in your views as to the necessity of international economic rehabilitation as a precedent to world peace.