-4-                             
 
                                                            
 
 
The Communist Party is well organized, capable and never at a loss to   
exploit possible advantages. This is going to be increasingly true as we   
                     go further north.                      
 
                                                            
 
 
The leader of the Communist Party, Togliati, is an able, forceful,   
well-informed man. I have met and talked with him and was impressed by his   
over-all knowledge of the resources and limitations of his country. In the   
field of economics, for instance, his almost photographic memory permitted   
him to cite figures and statistics in a way that a trained economist might   
envy. He is also a shrewd politician and moves prudently, never making the   
mistake of letting his emotions run away with his balanced judgment. He   
may also be a good Italian, but of that, I should not like to give an   
affidavit until further proof is had. But, that he is a man and a force to   
          be reckoned with, would be idle to deny.          
 
                                                            
 
 
I think that Togliati is fully aware that the Italian people  
as a whole, does not want Communism of the Russian brand. He is,   
therefore, biding his time and whether taking orders directly from Moscow,   
or from his own Italian conscience, his attitude towsrd the institutional   
question, toward the Vatican, even toward vested interests, has been more   
conciliatory than that of some of the other anii-fascist parties. The   
Communist Party has everything to gain and nothing to lose by this policy   
                        of waiting.                         
 
                                                            
 
 
In the meantime -- what of us?  
I think that we, by our policy, have definitely weakened the   
representatives of the center and by insisting on maintaining the skeleton   
of a discredited monarchy, have, in reality, played directly into the   
                 hands of the extreme left.                 
 
                                                            
 
 
In spite of the apparent strength and initiative of the Communist Party, I   
do not believe that Communism is wanted by the majority of the Italian   
people -- certainly not the Soviet brand of Communism. The Italian is too   
much of an individualist in every way. The mass movement psychology is not   
for him unless he has first let it trickle through an individual   
percolator. But he may turn to Communism, perhaps as a temporary measure   
rather than accept an outworn and discredited monarchy which he believes   
        is being forced upon him against his wishes.        
 
                                                            
 
 
Last Sunday, Count Sforza made an important speech in Rome. It was   
attended by most of the members of the Italian Government who sat on the  
stage with him; the hall waw packed with a fairly representatiwe audience,   
which, to judge by their appearance, was drawn largely from privileged   
classes. Sforza carefully avoided mentioning the monarchy; but it is   
significant that when he spoke of "the stab in the back" on June 10,   
1940, (Here, there was a great demonstration for France. ) this was   
imediately interrupted by a voice shouting out "Yes, but the monarchy was   
equally guilty of this treachery'" and thereupon followed the biggest   
demonstration of the meeting with practically the whole audience  
shouting "Down with the monarchy|" This reaction came from a