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     The Minister then broke in and said that he himself
 
knew that that was the case and that the Allied powers
 
had no such objectives in mind. He said that he would 
 
tell me immediately and very frankly, and of course solely 
 
for the informgtion of the President, that Ribbentrop in
 
his conversations in Rome, both with him and with the Duce, 
 
and he believed with the Vatican as well, had stated that 
 
Germany was determined to undertake a military offensive 
 
in the near future; that she was not considering any solu-
 
tion short of a military victory, as a means of obtaining
 
peace, and that after German victory peace would be laid
 
down by German "Diktat". He said that Ribbentrop seemed
 
to be convinced that the German Army could achieve such 
 
a military victory within five months, and that the German 
 
Government believed that France would crumble first
 
and then England shortly after. He said that he had
 
again attempted, as he had at Berchtesgaden, to persuade 
 
Ribbentrop that the reasonable objectives of Germany 
 
could be achieved by negotiation, and that in that connec-
 
tion he had mentioned my own mission to Europe. He said,
 
however, that Ribbentrop had brushed to one side all
 
references of this character, and that he had talked in
 
very loud and violent terms of German power and of German
 
military strength.
 
     The Minister said that he himself was by no means
 
convinced of Germany's ability to win such a victory. He
 
said that it might well be that the present German regime
 
was like a man suffering from tuberculosis who looked
 
strong and healthy, but who had within him the germ of a
 
fatal disease which might lay him low at the most
 
                                             unexpected