We spoke, of course, about the Italo-Abyssinian conflict.

Hoare started complaining about the French: they are far too optimistic in thinking that the conflict can be settled in a trice. The untangling of the African knot, alas, will be a lengthy process, to judge by the evidence. The Italian demands remain absolutely unacceptable to Abyssinia, as they do to the League of Nations and England. It would be best of all to end the war without winners and losers; peace in the future would be more stable. (H. listed the Vienna Congress, the 1866 Austro-Prussian war, and other historic examples.) But will it turn out like that? Nobody knows. Mussolini has taken the bit between his teeth, listens to no one, and decides everything by himself, while his advisers cringe before their dictator, telling him what he wants to hear.

I asked: does even Grandi behave like this?

H. spread his arms and said: ‘All Mussolini’s advisers strive only to please their Duce. As a result, he is misinformed. The harshness of the British response surprised him. He thought that Rothermere

Viscount Harold Harmsworth Rothermere, British newspaper proprietor and Conservative politician.

and Beaverbrook had expressed the true opinion of the nation. That was a mistake. Now it is difficult for Mussolini to retreat.’

I briefed H. on our position. We have no quarrels with Italy. The political and economic relations between the USSR and Italy have been good for the last ten years. We have no interests in Africa. If we are currently taking a stand against Italy, it is only as a loyal member of the League of Nations and because we want to teach a lesson to serve as a warning for any future aggressors. Italy is not a very serious aggressor, but there are more dangerous candidates in the world, particularly in Europe. An appropriate precedent must be set for them.

H. assured me that the British position is exactly the same. England also has no interests of its own in the conflict. She is guided, he claims, purely by loyalty to the League of Nations and the desire to admonish a more dangerous potential aggressor who might appear in three, five or ten years (H., like me, does not regard Italy as a terrifying aggressor). H. formulated his thought in such a way that it was clear he had Germany in mind. The French, he said, do not understand the fundamental importance of sanctions in this case and hamper their application. True, the situation has improved, but insufficiently.

I inquired whether the rumours that someone was ready to offer Germany political and economic compensation for its participation in sanctions were true. H. categorically denied this. I expressed my satisfaction and added: ‘Indeed, to reward Germany for participating in sanctions against Italy would be the same as treating influenza with an inoculation against typhus.’

H. laughed and said we shouldn’t worry. He also said that Canada had proposed in Geneva to ban oil, coal, iron and other exports to Italy, without the knowledge of the British delegation, and that he was not optimistic about oil sanctions: the USA may sell them short. Roosevelt and Hull are ready to assist the League of Nations, but they do not control the powerful oil trusts. The announcement of oil sanctions without the USA’s participation would have no practical significance.

In conclusion, I delicately expressed our dissatisfaction with a special agency organized in Geneva alongside the League of Nations, a certain ‘Anglo-French conference’ engaged in Abyssinian and other affairs. Our delegation in the League of Nations does not even know what this agency does or what decisions it makes.

H. blushed a little and shifted the blame onto the Belgian premier, Van Zeeland.

Paul Guillaume van Zeeland, prime minister of Belgium, 1935–37.

The latter, he said, overdid it at the last meeting when he spoke about a mandate allegedly obtained by Britain and France from the League of Nations to settle the Italo-Abyssinian conflict. That was absolutely false. There was no such mandate. H. had not known what Van Zeeland was going to say, otherwise he would have pulled him up. It had been awkward, but there was nothing to lose sleep over. Even if Britain and France undertake some preparatory measures to terminate the conflict, final termination will be carried out within the framework of the League of Nations and through its agency.