Rome, March 16, 1940.
 
     I visited Count Ciano with the Ambassador at ten
 
o'clock. He received me with a very personally friendly
 
greeting.
 
     I said that one of the first things that I wanted
 
to say to the Minister was that one of the outstanding
 
impressions that I had gained on my trip was the confi-
 
dence felt that the Minister and the Duce would do every-
 
thing possible on behalf of Italy to further the reestab-
 
lishment of peace. I said that I had been looking forward
 
for many days to my return to Rome, and to the opportunity
 
of having further conversations with him.
 
     I reminded the Minister that when I had left Rome
 
the Duce had said to me that I would find far greater
 
intransigence in London and in Paris than I would in
 
Berlin. I said, however, that, on the contrary, I found
 
no intransigence in either London or Paris, although I had
 
found a complete determination on the part of those two
 
governments to continue the war to its bitter end, unless
 
they could obtain practical and positive guarantees of
 
security which would render them full assurance that they
 
would not again be plunged into a war of this kind.
 
     In Germany, I said to the Minister, I had been told
 
by every member of the German Government that the war must
 
be fought by Germany to victory because the definite objec-
 
tive of the Allied powers was to destroy the Reich, the present 
 
regime and the German people. I said that I had not found 
 
in London or in Paris any indication from the men who were 
 
today governing those two countries of any desire 
 
to destroy the Reich nor the German people.
 
                                                            The
 
.