-5-
 
had the belief in the back of his own mind that Mussolini's ultimate objectives were territorial 
 
acquisitions by Italy in Northern Africa, primarily in Tunis at the expense of France, and that the 
 
limited objectives now stated by Italy were only a part of the whole picture.
 
          He said that a year and a half ago he had been fully prepared to reach an immediate 
 
settlement with Italy, but that just at that juncture the Italian people had been deliberately stirred 
 
up to make public demands for Corsica, Nice, et cetera, in addition to the demands which France 
 
was prepared to concede, and that under those conditions no French Government could have 
 
survived politically if it had attempted to reach an agreement with Italy.  During recent months he 
 
said the attitude of the Italian Government had been reasonable and moderate.  The French 
 
economic arrangement with Italy was in general working out well, and none of the economic 
 
difficulties which had arisen between the British and Italians had so far arisen in the case of France 
 
and Italy.
 
          I took occasion at this point to say that in all of my conversations in Rome I had never 
 
heard one word said by the Italian authorities which was in the slightest degree in the nature of 
 
any recrimination against France, and that my own observation had led me to the conclusion that 
 
whatever antagonism to France might have existed last Year, there was no overt sign of such 
 
antagonism at the present moment.                                               :
 
          I stated that it seemed to me that the Italian Government was now in a position where 
 
from the standpoint of the possibility of peace it occupied a singularly strategic