Post by Diarist on Mar 22, 2016 23:44:27 GMT 1
As requested the ambassadors to Switzerland from Britain, France, Greece, Italy and Yugoslavia attended the meeting. Each were asked how their respective governments envisaged an end to the conflict. Greece already had what it wanted, the Dodecanese islands. Britain and France wanted Italy out of Africa and Mussolini's dismissal from politics. Yugoslavia wanted the territory given to Italy at the end of the Great War, i.e. Trieste and the Slovene region. The stumbling block was NW Italy. Rome was demanding that all territory occupied by the French be returned to Italian control but it was quickly pointed out that Rome is scarcely in the position to make demands. After three hours of discussion they retired to lunch and would convene again at 15:00 hours.
After lunch several announcements were made by the British and French ambassadors:
- Their Foreign Ministers would be in Bern tomorrow to present a new proposal to the Italian delegation.
- Italian forces in Tripoli have surrendered to French forces.
- Italian forces in Eritrea have used chemical weapons against Abyssinian forces.
- British and Italian commanders were negotiating the surrender of Tobruk.
- French forces in Piedmont have broken through the Italian defences and were approaching the outskirts of Torino from all directions. The city is expected to be in French hands within the next 24 hours.
Giuseppe Motta, the head of the Federal Political Department in Bern, welcomed these announcements and a meeting at 14:00 tomorrow was agreed upon.