-4-
 
would realize from the personal letter which the President
 
had addressed to Mussolini that the President cordially
 
concurred in this belief.
 
     I inquired of the Minister with regard to the Balkan
 
situation. He stated that a cardinal point in Italy's
 
foreign policy was the maintenance of the status quo in
 
the Balkans. He said that it  had been made clear to Ger-
 
many that Italy would not agree to any German penetration
 
of Yugoslavia, and that Italy intended to do all that is
 
possible towards the maintenance of the present Balkan
 
situation, leaving the question of territorial revision
 
in abeyance until the time came when a general peace
 
settlement could be undertaken.
 
     The Minister said that he had agreed to confer with
 
Count Telski here in Italy three days from now. He said
 
that he considered the Hungarian situation the most criti-
 
cal in Europe at this time, but that he believed that; dif-
 
ficulties of a "serious character" could be avoided through
 
continued cooperation between Italy and Hungary.
 
     He represented to me that the reports that Italy was
 
stirring up trouble in Croatia were unfounded and said
 
again that on March 25th, the third anniversary of his
 
signing the Treaty of Non-Aggression with Yugoslavia, he
 
intended to give a public banquet in honor of' the Minister
 
of Yugoslavia as a gesture to try and quiet rumors of in- 
 
creasing friction between Itay and Yugoslavia.
 
     The Minister said that notwithstanding Ribbentrops
 
assurance that a military offensive by Germany was imminent--
 
which assertions had been accepted at face value by Mussolini
 
and himself--Hitler made it clear that no military offensive
 
on the Western front was to be undertaken in the immediate
 
                                                future