An Rúnaí,¹

I had an audience with the Holy Father this morning. He looked well and was in an unusually affable mood, told me he had benefited much by his holiday in Castelgandolfo.

His Holiness said he had read with pleasure the Note I had written about the President's efforts at Geneva on behalf of Religious institutions in Italy and asked me to convey his thanks to the President and to say how pleased He is. I said the President would be exceeding gratified by His Holiness' words.

The Pope asked me what I thought about the situation and I said that I still could not believe that the League Powers would allow a general war to develop from the crisis. He said He believed so too and proceeded to quote Mr. Baldwin's remarks about not resorting to military sanctions. His Holiness then took up a book and proceeded to read out the casualties of each country in the last war, the number of men mobilized and the number surviving at the end of the war in 1918. Also He had all the data concerning the cost of the war to each of the principal countries. He said He feared that Italy would not have the money and quoted Napoleon's well known saying about the essentials for waging war successfully.

The Holy See is becoming quite critical of Britain and therefore more open to see our point of view in our own dispute with that country. The President's stand for principle is well appreciated here as is his refusal to exploit his position for internal purpose.