P.S. - On my trips this afternoon, there was nothing interesting 
      at the Turkish Embassy. The Cardinal told me that the Apostolic 
      Delegate in Spain, although an Italian, had informed him that 
      there were approximately twenty thousand Italian troops still 
      in the Franco army, but that there is a general feeling that 
      the war is coming to a close.
 
      
 
 
At the Russian Embassy I had a very interesting time. I told 
      him point blank that America was frankly amazed at the so-called 
      trials in Russia and wondered if he cared to tell me something 
      about them. He told me that they all date back to the original 
      break of the Trotsky-Stalin philosophy; Stalin contending on 
      one hand that Russia was big enough to maintain a social system 
      of her own; Trotsky, on the other hand, saying that Russia could 
      never prosper under a Communistic system unless they worked to 
      make the rest of the world Communistic. This fight went on in 
      a proper way between the ordinary political opponents for five 
      or six years.
 
      
 
 
Then came time to lay out the Five-Year Plan around 1928, 
      and things started to be very bad in 1932 and 1933. Since they 
      were not able to get outside capital, they were obliged to lay 
      out their own money and, of course, this capital did not earn 
      them any money