Confidential report from Michael MacWhite to Joseph P. Walshe (Dublin)
(Confidential)¹

The rumour that Mussolini and Hitler met in secret near the Italo-German frontier on June 28th has at last been denied. This denial is said to be due to the deductions drawn to the effect that the former insisted on the latter taking no rash action in connection with Danzig. However that may be, newspaper men here are convinced the meeting took place.

Since Lord Halifax issued his warning to the Totalitarian States last week the Italian papers have raised the unanimous cry that the Democracies are preparing to make war on them because they have asked for justice or as the Germans say 'lebensraum'. Inconsistently enough they are accused both of aggression and inefficiency at the same time. Several newspapers expatiate on race suicide in France while the 'Popolo d'Italia' declares that since the Ethiopian war the flag of Great Britain has been the white flag. She showed it then to Italy as she does today to Japan.

The policy of the Democracies is described as a desperate attempt to arrest the course of events hurling threats and mobilising spirits for war. The 'Messaggero' today quotes German papers to the effect that Britain and France made similar threats twelve months ago in regard to Sudetenland, as they do today about Danzig and that the result would be the same. An organ of the Foreign Office carried the threat that 'to defend Danzig is to make the guns speak and with the guns Italian demands will be satisfied at the same time'.

Notwithstanding all this high talk, it would appear that the recent speeches of both the French Premier and the British Foreign Secretary have had a very salutary effect on Fascist leaders. They seem convinced now that France and England mean what they say, but, even if the guns refrain from talking, the tension is likely to continue. It becomes more and more difficult to envisage any solution of the actual international situation by peaceful methods.