751.65/397: Telegram
The Ambassador in Italy (Phillips) to the Secretary of State
Rome, June 6, 1938—5
p.m.
[Received June 6—2:45 p.m.]
[Received June 6—2:45 p.m.]
135. Embassy’s telegram 111, May 19, 6 p.m. According to Italian Foreign Office sources the Franco-Italian negotiations are at a standstill for two reasons.
- 1.
- After the battle of the Ebro in Spain the end of the Spanish war had seemed in sight and at any rate Barcelona was on the verge [Page 210] of collapse. At that moment French military supplies had been shipped to Valencia and Barcelona in such large quantities that while the Loyalist forces were no longer in any position to take the offensive their resistance had nevertheless been so strengthened that they were able to put up a stiff defensive and so to prolong the war. Italian official sources allege that these supplies and reenforcements are still continuing.
- 2.
- The attitude of the French press representing that the Italians through fear of Hitler were endeavoring to make use of these negotiations to weaken the Rome–Berlin Axis has so irritated Mussolini that he is unwilling to continue the negotiations until such “misrepresentations” cease.
Phillips