ADSS 1.274 Borgongini Duca to Maglione: Meeting with Ciano

ADSS 1.274 Francesco Borgongini Duca, Italy, to Luigi Maglione, Sec State.

Reference: Report 7679 (AES 2793/40)

Location and date: Rome, 31.03.1940

Summary statement: Reports meeting with Ciano who revealed that Muissolini had ‘committed himself excessively’; but Ciano continues to do everything possible to preserve neutrality.  Nuncio invited minister to act with prudence.  Ciano warns Nuncio not to trust information sent by the ambassadors to their gov’ts.

Language: Italian

Text:

Last Friday, 27 March, at 12.15, Minister Ciano, who had just come back from the palazzo Venezia, received me.

The purpose of my visit was to converse with him on the matters which Your Eminence had instructed me to settle (about ten arguments, more or less thorny, regarding which I had reported to you in the last few days) and also to take advantage of the occasion to obtain some information about political events.

The Minister, who always listens kindly to me (without ever taking his eyes from the pile of Notes which I am instructed to hand to him), told me when I thanked him, as Your Eminence told me to, for the information which he had sent to you through the Ambassador before the Brenner meeting (1), that: “Certainly it was a big commitment; but I am still doing everything to put a stop to it.  He (Mussolini) committed himself excessively. I cannot say if there will be war or not but ertainly I am working hard and you cannot have any idea of what I have done and am still doing.  But god helps me.

“When will you see the Holy Father?”  (I replied that I had already asked for an audience and hoped that His Holiness would consent to me soon.)  “Well, ask him to think about me from time to time and to pray for me and to send me his blessing because I need it very much”.

Then we started dealing with the business in hand, as I have already mentioned.

At the end, when we got up and were walking towards the door, I returned to the subject hoping to obtain a little more information.

He told me again that it is a great commitment.

I took courage and added: “Excellency, take good care of yourself and do not expose yourself too much”.

He replied: “You are right, I always go about without a bodyguard.  Certainly, the Germans would shoot me if they could” (2).

I insisted: “Be on guard not only against the Germans but also against the Italian people because among them there could be ill-intentioned people”.

He replied: “The Italian people love me and know that I am working for them”.

In the end he gave me a warning: “Do not trust the diplomats accredited to the Holy See who in their telegrams and reports give information about Italy as heard in the Vatican and also mention my name.  We read everything, and Mussolini also reads everything.  You must consider my position, otherwise I shall be obliged not to tell you anything more”.

I replied that we should not give too much credit to the statements of diplomats who want to make themselves look bigger by increasing the importance of the news they send, sometimes adding something of their own.

The conversation ended with these words: “What I told you is meant for the Holy Father and for His Excellency Cardinal Maglione”.

The Minister’s warning makes me fear that the Foreign Embassies have secret informers in the Vatican, besides those the Italian Government itself has.

Notes:

(1) ADSS 1.272.

(2) There were rumours among some German diplomatic circles that Ciano was an Anglophile. See DGFP, Series D, Volume 9, n179, pp197-98.

ADSS 1.251 Borgongini Duca to Maglione: Ciano believes Germany will invade France

ADSS 1.251 Francesco Borgongini Duca, Italy, to Luigi Maglione, Sec State.

Reference: Report Number 7624 (AES 1967/40)

Location and date: Rome, 02.03.1940

Summary statement: Ciano believes Germany will invade France in the near future and will ask for Italian assistance.

Language: Italian

Text:

In compliance with your instructions I am marking this sheet  as “very confidential”.

On 29 February at the end of a long conversation with Minister Ciano, I talked about the political situation and he told me verbally: “I have the feeling that a great offensive will be launched by the Germans on the main front (French) very soon, and I foresee, regarding this offensive, that Germany will make the utmost effort to carry us into the war.  I am fighting to avoid this happening but there are many strong currents in Italy in favour of Germany.” (1)

I endeavoured to get him to come down a little more to details on this particular allusion tho the trend of events, but I was not able to obtain a single word more.

I also mentioned the recent publication of Hermann Rauschning’s Hitler m’a dit (Paris Cooperation) to him, in which the author gave such a true portrait of Hitler that it seems that the importation of the book into Italy has been forbidden, although it is a great subject of conversation in political circles on account of the personality of the author, who is the official Danzig representative. (2)

Ciano knew the book.

I then mentioned the news given to me verbally by Your Eminence regarding Bolshevik propaganda in Bulgaria and he replied that he was well informed about it and added” The day in which communications between Bulgaria and Russia were opened, in the Sophia University, 1200 people subscribed to Pravda which, with Izvestia, is one of the most important Russian newspapers.

Notes: 

(1) This declaration by Ciano to the nuncio is also reported in Charles-Roux Huit ans au Vatican, p373.

(2) Hermann Rauschning (1887-1982), was a former Nazi who broke with Hitler and the party in 1934 before emigrating to Poland in 1936 and finally ending up in the USA in 1941.  His book Gesprache mit Hitler (Hitler Speaks) was published to great acclaim. Most historians place little credence in the authenticity of the text today regarding it as largely the work of Rauschning’s imagination.

ADSS 1.245 Borgongini Duca to Maglione: Italy will not go to war

ADSS 1.245 Francesco Borgongini Duca (1), Italy, to Luigi Maglione, Sec State

Reference: AES 759/40

Location and date: Rome, 27.01.1940

Summary statement: Italian Foreign Minister, assured the nuncio that Italy will not go to war; various matters.

Language: Italian

Text:

At the end I asked him ex abrupto if the news of a military intervention of Italy next February was true.  The Minister promptly and without thinking about the words replied: “Rest assured Italy will not go to war” and added this reservation: “At least as long as it depends on me …” (2).

Notes: 

(1) Francesco Borgongini Duca (1884-1954), Nuncio to Italy 1929-53.

(2) Galeazzo Ciano (1903-1944), Italian Foreign Minister 1936-43.

ADSS 1.211 Borgongini Duca to Pius XII: Italy will remain neutral

ADSS 1.211 Francesco Borgongini Duca, Italy, to Pope Pius XII

Reference: Unnumbered report (AES 7052/39)

Location and date: Rome, 28.09.1939

Summary statement: Nuncio has thanked Ciano for his efforts for peace.  Assured by Commander Filippo Anfuso, Cabinet Chief, that Italy will not go to war.

Language: Italian

Text:

This morning at 10.30 I was received by Minister Ciano (1) and I told him that the only motive for my visit was that of brining him the august and cordial thanks of the Holy Father for the work carried out up to now by him with diligence and efficiency in favour of peace and that His Holiness was hoping that he would continue to do everything possible for such a noble purpose.  I added that Your Holiness deigned to give me this supreme mission just yesterday, a day when the international situation was becoming darker and darker. (2)

The Minister replied promptly asking me to tell Your Holiness that he was deeply affected by such high and fatherly encouragement and that he would not fail to fight for peace in general and in particular for that of Italy.

While he was speaking, Count Ciano was called urgently to Palazzo Venetia, and prepared to go.

After the Minister had left, I spoke with Commander Filippo Anfuso, his Cabinet Chief, to ask him, in case of military operations, to exempt the pontifical establishments of the Basilica of Loreto and Basilica of Padua from military and civil requisitions. (3)

M. Anfuso replied: “rest assured that there will not be any military operations.  I can tell you in confidence that we cannot wage war because we have nothing and because the Italian people do not want it.  Minister Ciano has carried out admirable work within this context”.  Then he added: “Monsignor, where shall we find ourselves with this movement of the Russians and with the Germans spreading southwards?  It is an anti-Christian movement and against our culture; we must go back to the barbaric invasions to find a historical comparison.  In the meantime Poland, a Catholic State, is finished; unfortunately it was badly advised when it accepted war.”

This, Most Holy Father, is what was said to me this morning at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Notes: 

(1) Galeazzo Ciano, (1903-1944), Italian Foreign Minister 1936-43.

(2) Warsaw surrendered to the German on 27.09.1939.

(3) Filippo Anfuso, (1901-1963), Chief of Staff Foreign Ministry 1938-42.

ADSS 1.178 Borgongini Duca to Maglione: situation in Italy

ADSS 1.78 Francesco Borgongini Duca, Italy, to Luigi Maglione, Sec State

Reference: Report number 7147/39, (AES 6032/39)

Location and date: Rome, 01.09.1939

Summary statement: Reports meetings with Guido Buffarini – Italy will not enter the war; US Ambassador – Italy will remain neutral and eventually join the Allies; and For Min Galeazzo Ciano and Mussolini are working for peace.

Language: Italian

Text:

1.  Last Tuesday, 29 August, I had an audience with His Excellency Buffarini (1), as I said I had the honour to relate in my other reports. (2) I was able to learn from him that for the moment Italy has no intention whatsoever of entering the war, even if it breaks out, between Germany and Poland.  He agreed with me that war is won by those who keep out of out; he then added these exact words: “This time, before we enter the war, we shall ask for firm guarantees”; these words made me think that they might intend joining the war, at a later date, on the same side as in the first world war.

He added, and I do not know if that was his own thought or whether it emanated from a higher source, that Hitler did not believe in Britain and France’s intervention but that he anticipated that he would defeat Poland in three weeks.

Buffarini extolled the Holy Father saying: “He is exactly the Pope we need”.

He also expressed his satisfaction with the recent measures regarding Catholic Action, a solution which corresponded in every way with his personal thoughts, because the Bishops are completely trusted by the State.

2. I could only see Ambassador Philips of the United States at 15.00hrs yesterday as he was out to luncheon. (3) I gave him Your Eminence’s note according to your orders just received from you. (4) The Ambassador thanked me for the interest taken by the Holy See in approaching him and promised me he would immediately send a telegram to Washington.  He then added the following details which I relate, although I am sure that Your Eminence has been acquainted with them by various other sources.

He told me that the previous evening, 30 August, Ciano (5) told him that all was finished. “The poor chap” continued Phillips, “was depressed”; Hitler’s ultimatum to Poland was expiring in fact that very evening; that is, the order was to send a plenipotentiary to Berlin before the evening of the 30^th.  To this ultimatum Poland had in the meantime replied with a general mobilisation.  During the conversation, Ciano phoned to Attolico (6) to ask if this plenipotentiary had arrived or not, and Attolico replied “Up to now nobody has arrived”, to which Ciano said by way of a conclusion: “There is nothing else to do”. Ambassador Phillips was saying to me that he had been agitated the entire night and the next morning he tried anxiously to find out if war had broken out; and when informed that hostilities had not started, he saw a new ray of hope, which was growing in his heart from hour to hour, “because one can see Hitler is beginning to hesitate”.

I asked him if, in his opinion, Italy would enter the war.  He replied, with certainty, in the negative and that Italy would lose no time in declaring her neutrality.  He told me also in confidence that, later on, Italy would join Britain and France.  This decision would come about as a consequence of a future ultimatum by Britain and France to Italy.  I begged to point out that this would not be a good way to reach this end, because persuasion and not violence should be used.  He relied: “I expressed myself badly in saying ‘ultimatum’, I could not find the right word”.  According to him, however, Italy will not fight for Germany.

In the end I asked him who would be in charge of the Palazzo Farnese in case of war with France, and he said: “The United States”; and that he knew this, having had the information from Ambassador Poncet (7), although the United States had not yet sent him direct instructions.

A last work. He told me confidentially that up to noon Poncet was still a pessimist.

3. Yesterday evening at 18.00hrs, I was a last received by Ciano, whom I found very depressed and tired.  He had been at the Ministry that morning since 07.00hrs and had not even gone out for lunch. (8) “I have eaten a plate of spaghetti on this table”, he said.  I enquired about the ultimatum to Poland and how it was that Hitler had not yet started hostilities.  He replied that he as well as Mussolini were fighting as lions to precent the conflict and in the morning (Thursday 31.08.1939) Italy had exerted a strong influence on Germany. (9)

I spoke to him about the last earnest appeal of the Holy Father made that very day.  He knew about it having already having spoken with Count Pignatti (10) and he told me: “Italy, of course, supports these interventions with all her power”, and he begged me to tell His Holiness that “since Salzburg [Ciano] does nothing but fight for peace”.

He explained to me also that the various measures taken in Italy did not mean a willingness to go to war and he stated that they had been taken to show that something was being done.

I asked him for how long we should remain in the tremendous suspense.  He replied: “Between today and tomorrow.”

On my way out I said: “Whatever happens I hope that Italy will not make a move”.  The Minister replied with a smile, “That is another matter; before making a move Italy will think about it very carefully, calmly and with great attention”, and he continued to smile.

Notes: 

(1) Guido Buffarini (1895-1945), Undersecretary of the Interior Ministry 1940-43.

(2) Not published in ADSS.

(3) William Phillips (1878-1968), United States Ambassador to Italy 1936-41.

(4) ADSS 1.160. Borgongini Duca had been instructed to give Phillips a copy of the Pope’s appeal.  Phillips sent it to President Roosevelt.

(5) Galeazzo Ciano (1903-1944), Italian Foreign Minister 1936-43.

(6) Bernardo Attolico (1880-1942), Italian Ambassador to Germany 1935-39.

(7) Andre Francois-Poncet (1887-1978), French Ambassador to Italy 1938-40.

(8) According to his Diary (Diario I, pp 154-55) Ciano spent the day of 31.08.1939 in fear of war breaking out between Italy and the Western Powers.

(9) This most likely refers to the communication made by the Italian Ambassador in Berlin, saying that Mussolini had got into contact with London to say that nothing could save the peace except an offer of Danzig to Germany.  Mussolini then pressed Hitler to leave time for a meeting of the interested powers.

(10) Bonifacio Pignatti (1877-1957), Italian Ambassador to the Holy See 1935-39.