(3 of 6)
Wants. Next step of Il Duce in his new frame of mind was to make perfectly clear that Italy's minimum aims remain in time of war what they were in peace: 1) Djibouti; 2) representation on the board of directors of the Suez Canal Co.; 3) guarantees for the Italian minority in Tunisia. He made it equally clear that anything above minimum would be in no sense repugnant to Italy.
Thereupon Premier Mussolini and Count Ciano punked the fuse of an extraordinary chain of diplomatic firecrackers. Italian envoys popped up all over Europe. Il Duce and his son-in-law played faction against faction, until no nation could be sure whether he was coming or going. At first the Allies were favored. Insulting press attacks on the Allies, particularly on Great Britain, were toned down; so was praise of the Axis. Friendly Giuseppe Bastianini was appointed Ambassador to the Court of St. James's. Trade talks with a British delegation were nurtured.
When Count Ciano took a flying trip to Berlin and was again snubbed as a meddling boy, Italy countered by turning the heat on Germany's silent partner Russia. Later Russian Ambassador-designate to Rome Nikolai Gorelchin was given such a roasting press reception that he was recalled before he had even seen King Vittorio Emanuele III; and home to Rome went Italian Ambassador to Moscow Augusto Rosso (whose name means Red).
The Finnish war put Mussolini's hand on many a pressure valve. He made a show of sending planes to Finland over Germany's protest and territory. When the Allies seemed on a spot, he called off the British trade talks, got into a jam with Britain over coal, in the end managed to have most of his coal and burn Ribbentrop too. Last week he had everyone utterly bewildered. There was talk of sending an Ambassador back to Moscow, even though Premier Molotov was making such aspersive remarks about Italy's Albanian grab that the Italian press would not print them. Il Duce moved to renew the British trade talks, and French Premier Reynaud had a long and apparently pleasant talk with Ambassador Raffaele Guariglia. But as French Ambassador André François-Poncet returned to Paris, L'Oeuvre commented: "It's not a secret that he didn't obtain impressive results at Rome."
Impressive indeed was the way in which devious Benito Mussolini meanwhile made himself the patron saint of a Balkan peace bloc. Hungary, which is geographically in Germany's sphere, swung back politically into Italy's (where she was before Anschluss). Foreign Minister Count Stephen Csaky was received by Count Ciano in Venice and last week Premier Count Paul Teleki was made to feel very happy in Rome—even though Benito Mussolini told him Hungary must not dream of getting Transylvania from Rumania until war's end. An Italian economic mission showed up in every Southeastern European country except Turkey, which sent a mission to Rome.