The Final Stages

Abstract

Germany’s withdrawal from the Conference did not, in fact, signify the end of its endeavours to reach agreement. Even Germany declared herself willing to continue the search for a disarmament agreement, but this was quite clearly to be on her own terms, and included a policy of detaching Italy from the other Western Powers, though how this was to be achieved without offending the volatile Mussolini was unclear. On 14 October, Hassell, the German Ambassador in Rome, advised that Hitler’s speech announcing German withdrawal from the Disarmament Conference should aim at keeping Italy from ‘joining the front of our opponents’ and recognize the last Italian attempts at mediation, even if they were inadequate.¹ Stress should be placed on the fact that Mussolini’s Four-Power Pact had been the sole possibility for making headway, though this was obviously seen more as a means of placating Mussolini than offering a positive step forward; as a marginal note by Kopke of the Foreign Ministry, on one copy of this telegram, observes, ‘[F]or this, an entirely different atmosphere would first have to be created’.² However, Hassell was immediately rebuked by Bülow, who declared that the Four-Power Pact was permeated with League of Nations principles, which would allow the French a pretext for refusing to apply it, and any rejection of a German offer to negotiate would be a serious defeat.