The Struggle For Peace

would take place in Rome, that our Ambassador, who would
conduct them on our behalf, would have to return to London
to receive his instructions and to make sure that he understood
the mind of the Government in the matter. At the same time
I told the Ambassador that I wished to impress upon him
certain points. First of all I told him that the British Govern-
ment regarded a settlement of the Spanish question as an
essential feature of any agreement at which we might arrive.
No agreement could be considered complete unless it con-
tained a settlement of the Spanish question. •
" Secondly, I repeated that, as he had been already told by
my right hon. Friend (Mr. Eden), we were loyal members of
the League, and that if we came to an agreement we should
desire to obtain the approval of the League for it. I said it was
essential that it should not be possible, if we went to the League
to recommend the approval of the agreement, for it to be said
that the situation in Spain during the conversations had been
materially altered by Italy, either by sending fresh reinforce-
ments to Franco or by failing to implement the arrangements
contemplated by the British formula. I added that I did not
believe these intimations would occasion his Government a
moment's anxiety, since I was confident that his Government
would approach the negotiations in the same spirit as we should
do, namely, in perfect good faith and with a sincere desire to
reach agreement.
" Perhaps in that last sentence I have expressed that
difference in outlook between my right hon. Friend and myself
of which he has told us of his consciousness. I am not here
to say that the actions of the Italian Government in the past
have been satisfactory to me, but I am concerned with the
future, not the past. I believe that if these negotiations are
approached in a spirit of mutual confidence there is a good
hope that they may be brought to a successful conclusion,
but if you are going beforehand to enter upon them in a spirit
of suspicion, then none of those conditions that you can think
of, the initial withdrawal of troops or anything else that my
right hon. Friend suggests, is going to save you. If there is
going to be bad faith there will be bad faith, and no assurances
beforehand are going to alter it.
" I know very well that the decision of the Government is