- 6-
 
could the Allied governments obtain that an agreement of the
 
kind you describe, which they might now enter into, would not 
 
be as quickly violated as the agreement reached at Munich, in 
 
which you yourself played so great a part?" To this inquiry he 
 
made no direct reply, but limited himself to saying that he felt 
 
that the problem of security could be dealt with simultaneously
 
with the problem of political peace.
 
     As I started to leave the Duce made one final remark to me
 
which appeared to me of particular significance. He said: "You
 
may wish to remember that, while the German-Italian Pact 
 
exists, I nevertheless retain complete liberty of action."
 
     When I left he was again particularly cordial, and said in
 
English: "I am most grateful to you for having come to see me",
 
and said that he would communicate with me again on Tuesday, 
 
before I left Rome, in order that I might learn of his interview 
 
with Hitler.
 
       As soon as I left the Duce, I spoke with the President on 
 
the long distance telephone and related to him the chief 
 
points of my interview. I expressed to the President my belief
 
that he should authorize me to say to the Duce that the President
 
did not feel that he possessed sufficient information with
 
regard to the views which had been expressed to me in my visits
 
to Berlin, Paris and London, to make it possible for him to agree
 
to permit Mussolini to oonvey to Hitler any impressions which
 
I myself had fc~med with regard to any possible territorial
 
readjustments. I said to the President that I feared that if
 
Mussolini communicated to Hitler any impressions of this
 
character, the impression would inevitably be created that the
 
President was participating in the determination of such bases
 
for a political peace as might be offered by Hitler.
 
     The President said to me that he agreed with this
 
recommendation, and that I should further say that in the
 
belief of the President the problem of security was the
 
                                        fundamental