ITALY AND PEACE IN EUROPE
 
     My belief as to the present policy of the Italian
 
Government, and as to the present situation in Italy,
 
may be set down in a few words--
 
     Italy will, I think, unquestionably still move as
 
Mussolini alone determines. Mussolini is a man of genius,
 
but it must never be forgotten that Mussolini remains at
 
heart and in instinct an Italian peasant. He is vindic-
 
tive, and will never forget either an injury or a blow
 
to his personal or national prestige. He admires force
 
and power. His own obsession is the recreation of the
 
Roman Empire. His conscience will never trouble him as
 
to the way or the means, provided the method of accomplish-
 
ment in his judgment serves to gain the desired end.
 
     He will never forget nor forgive the sanctions epi-
 
sode of 1935 and the policy pursued by Great Britain
 
towards Italy at that time. Up to that moment strongly
 
anti-German, he then determined to seek an understanding
 
with Hitler as a balance to prevent Italian isolation.
 
He believes that he has found a successful answer to that
 
problem, and that it will serve his purpose of securing,
 
either at an eventual peace conference, or by throwing
 
his weight if necessary with the winning side in the
 
present war, the additional territorial and political
 
advantages which he seeks. He could at any moment during
 
the past two years have had the concessions he seeks from
 
France, short of the cession of political jurisdiction
 
in Tunisia. He has deliberately refused these conces-
 
sions because of his knowledge that if he now reached an
 
agreement with France, he could not readily obtain the
 
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