PAP                                PARIS
This telegram must be
closely paraphrased be-                 Dated May 14, 1940
fore being communicated
to anyone. (D)                     Rec'd 6:55 p.m.
 
 
Secretary of State
 
     Washington
 
     RUSH
 
     659, May 14, 7 p.m.
 
     PERSONAL AND SECRET FOR THE PRESIDENT:
 
     I received from Rome at 7 o'clock this evening Ambassador Phillips' rush 34l, May 14,
noon.
     I felt that it was my duty to communicate the information it contained immediately to the
Prime Minister. He was in a meeting of the War Cabinet but came out and I communicated the
information to him at 7:10 p.m.
     He said that the British Ambassador in Paris had just given him the same news. He
expressed the opinion that Italy certainly would enter the war on the side of Germany and might
even attack France tonight.
     I asked where he expected the attack. He said that it might come in Tunis or might be
begun by bombardments of the Riviera and Marseille by Italian planes.
     The Prime Minister went on the say that he felt Mussolini had decided to act at this
moment because of the appalling