vice we have done everything, and have received nothing in
return.” Cutting a very small figure now, Göring pleaded with
Negrelli to secure for him at least a press interview with the
Duce, claiming to be writing a book about Mussolini and his
party “Otherwise we shall both earn a reputation for being
bunglers and dilettantes who are all talk and no action.” He con-
cluded this letter (which of course made plain beyond perad-
venture that he had not yet seen Mussolini) with a reminder
that was more threat than promise: “Don’t forget one thing.
There is a future, and we shall not forget those who did some-
thing for us.” He added the postscript: “My wife has already
been in Munich for some weeks.”
Already packing to leave for Sweden, Hermann Göring was
a disappointed and humiliated man. Negrelli had not even
bothered to send back the press clippings about Hitler to him. “I
have just received word from Hitler,” Göring chided the Italian
on February , . “He says you should have told me straight
out if you couldn’t get access to M.” He gave Negrelli “one last
chance” to reap the rewards of success himself “Otherwise,” he
continued, abandoning pride for candor, “I am afraid that H.
will send other negotiators who will get to M. direct, and that
will leave me looking pretty stupid.”
This time Negrelli did claim to have shown the letter to
Mussolini. Inspired with fresh optimism, Göring rushed a
packet of books on Hitler for Negrelli to show to the Duce. “If
only I can speak with M.,” he wrote, “I shall be able to work eve-
rything out.... So please arrange the interview rapidly. You
might say that I’ve got to leave and it is important for me to
have spoken with M. first because I really am writing a little book
about him and the fascio for propaganda in Germany. It would
look dumb then if I have never seen him.”
This poignant letter to Negrelli was typed in clumsy capi-