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lasting peace. He said that Herr von Ribbentrop had
 
been utterly intransigent in his point of view, insist-
 
ing that Germany was determined to carry the war through
 
to a victorious conclusion and that the German Govern-
 
ment would consider no other alternative. The Cardinal
 
did not himself believe that Germany would undertake any
 
military offensive now on the Western front. He said
 
that he knew there was widespread opposition to such an
 
undertaking on the part of the General Staff, and that
 
he was by no means sure that there was not a movement on
 
foot within the General Staff to bring about a change in
 
regime. He asked me if I had any information to that
 
effect. I said that, of course, I had had many reports
 
to that effect, but that I had no information which I
 
could regard as conclusive.
 
       I asked Cardinal Maglione what he believed were the 
 
real motives which had induced Hitler to request the
 
interview today with Mussolini at the Brenner Pass. The
 
Cardinal said that he believed there were two possibili-
 
ties: first, that Germany was in reality determined to
 
undertake an immediate offensive, and that Hitler desired
 
to use this opportunity to bring pressure to bear upon
 
Mussolini to enter the war immediately on Germany's side;
 
second, that Hitler was considering peace terms which he.
 
would discuss with Mussolini for the purpose of having 
 
such terms presented to the Allies through Mussolini. 
 
I asked the Cardinal whether he thought that another pos-
 
sibility might not be the desire of Hitler to bring about
 
some form of closer accord between Mussolini and the
 
Soviet Government. The Cardinal said  that this, of
 
course, was a possibility, but that he did not think it
 
                              possible