Post by Diarist on Mar 29, 2016 9:58:29 GMT 1
Anthony Eden invited Pierre Flandin and Dino Grandi to a working breakfast at the British Embassy. Grandi is officially still Italy's Ambassador to the United Kingdom and he and Eden had met many times in the last 6 months. After breakfast the talks continued and Grandi was told that Torino and most of Piedmont would be returned to Italian control in return for economic and defence cooperation with its immediate neighbours and no alliances or agreements with Nazi Germany. Italy has just suffered greatly under one totalitarian government, allying itself with an even more repressive regime cannot be in Italy's interest.
Flandin explained that the Allies know everything about von Neurath's mission and Austria has no desire to be unified with Germany no more than Italy wants to be a German puppet-state. He'll be meeting the Hungarian and Yugoslavian Foreign Ministers shortly and wants to be able to tell them that Italy is 'on board'. Anthony Eden added that another demand is that Mussolini and others be turned over to the Permanent Court of International Justice in The Hague. They can decide whether a case for Crimes against Humanity is justified. Grandi said that Mussolini is already under arrest so there shouldn't be any objection.
Pierre Flandin left for the French Embassy while Grandi was allowed to telephone Rome. When he returned the Austrian Foreign Minister Egon Berger-Waldenegg and his Greek counterpart Dimitrios Maximos had arrived. An agreement was quickly achieved because the future of the Dodecanese Islands had already been decided and Grandi confirmed that Italy lays no claims on Austria or its territory. The territory Italy received after the Great War has been conceded to Yugoslavia. The Austrian added that the Germans had been sent home empty-handed and the Austrian army is conducting a mobilization exercise.
After the guests had left Eden went to the French Embassy. Pierre Flandin has invited the Romanian Ambassador to a late lunch. This is a delicate one because Russia is the greater threat here, not Germany but the country has oil which needs to be denied to the Germans.