R0ME, FEBURARY 26, 1940
 
          At 10 a.m. on Monday, February 26, the day after my arrival in Rome, Ambassador 
 
Phillips accompanied me to my first interview with the Minister for Foreign Affairs.  Count Ciano 
 
received me in his office in the Chigi Palace, the temporary Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the 
 
permanent Ministry being now under construction in the 1942 Exposition grounds.
 
          Count Ciano made an impression upon me quite different from that which I had 
 
anticipated. From his photographs, and from the reports which had been given me by persons who
 
had been in contact with him, I had pictured him as overwhelmingly filled with a sense of his own 
 
importance. In my conversations with him I found him quite the reverse.  He looks older than his 
 
thirty-eight years, but appears to be in exceptionally good physical condition. His manner was 
 
cordial and quite unaffected, and he  could not have been simpler nor more frank in the expression 
 
of his views. He speaks easily in colloquial English.
 
          I commenced the interview by saying how much I appreciated the courtesies which had 
 
been shown me on my arrival by the Government, and how much I welcomed the opportunity of 
 
talking with the Chief of the Government and with himself in order that I might report the views 
 
so communicated to me to the President and to the Secretary of State. I said that I wished to 
 
make clear at the outset my very strong conviction that during these past years relations between 
 
Italy and the United States had been far from satisfactory. I was going to be quite frank in adding 
 
that I believed there had been misunderstandings and misapprehensions on both sides, errors of 
 
omission and commission by both