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he came to the portion which related to discriminations, he said, "and could there be greater 
 
discriminations than those found in the Ottawa agreements? Or in the tariff policy pursued by the 
 
United States prior to the Roosevelt Administration?"
 
     When he had concluded his reading he said, "I subscribe to every word in this. It coincides 
 
completely with what I said in 1934, and what I believe now. But you must remember that Italy 
 
was the last country to enter upon an autarchic system, and she did so solely as a last resort, and 
 
in self-defense. A poor country like Italy had no other remedy after Britain had entered on the 
 
Ottawa policy, and after the other European nations had adopted autarchy, and France had 
 
imposed her quota systems and other restrictions. This policy outlined in this document represents 
 
the ideal which nations must come to, but I want to remind you that if and when the time comes 
 
that nations again can trade freely with each other, no such ideal as this can be realized unless
 
simultaneously the powers agree upon a practical and positive disarmament plan. So long as 
 
peoples are draining their national economies in the construction of armaments, there can be no 
 
hope of a sane international economic relationship."
 
          I, of course, stated at once that the President and Secretary Hull fully shared these views. I 
 
said it was exactly for that reason we had suggested that if the neutral powers could now agree 
 
upon the principles he had set forth, the neutral influence would be of great service when peace 
 
came in bringing these ideals into practical realization.
 
     Mussolini