An Rúnaí,¹

The Cardinal Secretary returned from his vacation on 31st October and held his first audience yesterday which I attended. His Eminence spoke about the persecution of the Catholics in Germany, the arrest of a Bishop and, despite suggestions of relaxation, the continuance of pressure to destroy the confessional schools. He is delighted with the President's action at Geneva and I have just received a remarkably enthusiastic note from him² which I shall send in the next bag.³ (This being written in the afternoon and the typists having gone.)

From the conversation of my colleagues in the anticamera it appears that His Holiness has all along been urging moderation and compromise on Mussolini, that Laval's position is weakening in his own country, that the British are completely selfish in their exploitation of the League and that the stupid Italian Press campaign against Britain has played into the latter's hands and to some extent at least justified her sending the fleet to the Near East. They were all very cynical of England's attitude of righteousness.

The anti-British feeling here is growing and affecting social relations, the British are almost boycotted and most of the officials' wives have left. The Superior of the Christian Brothers called on me yesterday, he is slightly uneasy lest his school be affected should conditions become worse. I do not think he has anything to fear as the population is well under control.