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slaughter and devastation, there will be no possibility for a long time to come of any peace 
 
negotiation."
 
     He paused, and I asked him if he would give me any suggestions as to my conversations in 
 
Berlin. He said he would be glad to be helpful, but he believed I would be told in Berlin more or 
 
less what he had just said to me.
 
     In conclusion, I said that Count Ciano had been good enough to ask if I would talk with 
 
him again before I, sailed home. I said I would welcome the privilege of talking also with the 
 
Duce before I departed for the United States. He replied, in a very friendly way, that he would be 
 
glad to talk with me again at any time, and that he believed he would probably receive reports 
 
from Berlin, Paris and London after my visits to those capitals, which would be of value to the 
 
President and myself, before I returned to Washington. It was agreed that if my plans made it 
 
possible, for me to return to Rome on March 16 or 17 I would see him again at that time.
 
     Mussolini then got up and Joined me on the other side of his desk. He spoke to me in 
 
English for a while and then turned into French. I asked him if he still rode every morning, and he 
 
said that he did, but that he had now taken up a new sport, tennis; that he had always thought of 
 
tennis as a young ladies' game but that he had now discovered that it was almost as hard exercise 
 
as fencing. He was delighted to say that he had that very morning beaten his professional 6-2.
 
     He walked with me to the door, gave me a particularly cordial handshake, and said he 
 
would look forward to seeing me again.