Extract from a letter from Michael MacWhite to Joseph P. Walshe (Dublin)

In the Foreign Office only one official asked casually if I had met our friend B.¹ It is evident they pay but scant attention to either himself or his work. Lodi Fé who called in to-day and who would naturally be prejudiced says everybody in the Palazzo Chigi regards him as somewhat deficient in his mental make up; that he wastes a lot of money on cables which nobody reads. Then he asked how things were in Ireland and observed 'Ah? Had our Big Man only the good sense of de Valera and kept us outside the conflict we would not be starving but would be in a position to dictate peace to Europe to-day'.