experience of his life, and that he regarded Stalin as the
 
greatest man outside off Germany. Ribbentrop had referred
 
to him as the logical successor of Peter the Great and
 
Alexander I, and had claimed that it was ridiculous for
 
Clano to think of Stalin as a Communist. Count Ciano
 
laughed, and he reminded me of conversations which he had
 
only a year ago with Ribbentrop, when Ribbentrop referred
 
to Stalin as "that most perverted of all damned Commun-
 
ists." I remarked that I myself had been struck in my
 
conversations with Ribbentrop in Berlin with the frequent 
 
references which he made to his "Soviet ally", and of the 
 
determination of Germany never to permit any European
 
power except Soviet Russia, in conjunction with Germany,
 
to decide questions affecting Eastern Europe.
 
        Count Ciano told me that owing to his past experi-
 
ence with Ribbentrop, he realized that what the latter said 
 
one day might be 'completely reversed the next. He stated
 
that Mussolini and he were now in contact with Berlin, al-
 
though, in answer to an inquiry from the Ambassador, he 
 
refused to specify the nature of that contact. He asked
 
what day I intended to leave Rome, and when I told him
 
that my plans were made to leave on March 18th, he sug-
 
gusted that I postpone my departure until the following.
 
morning. He said that word from Berlin would probably
 
received before noon on March 19th, and that he would
 
meet me confidentially in some place other than the For-
 
eign Office to give me the last word that he had before I
 
departed. I expressed my gratitude to the Minister for
 
suggestion, which I said I would abide by. I said
 
that even after my departure, before I returned to
 
                                   Washington,