represent two million people, in a people’s movement.“He leaves it to your judgment,” continued Carin, “to size u p
the situation with Mussolini. He asks you to make clear to M.
that this is a populist movement and not a parliamentary setup
... He was very cordial,” she wrote, “kissed my hand again and
again, sends you his best wishes, etc.”
Göring sent Carin’s report straight to Bastianini, who for-
warded it to Mussolini with the eight-month dossier of letters
from Göring, the press clippings, and the tedious memoranda
on the Walther hotel affair. He guiltily reminded Mussolini that,
acting on the Duce’s instructions, he had clearly given Göring to
understand that the Fascists accepted the spirit of his proposals,
though not without reservations.
Since then [Bastianini advised his prime minister] the
situation in Germany has undergone remarkable
changes. Once persecuted and unrecognized, the Na-
zis have now recovered their material and political
rights; their capo, Adolf Hitler, has been restored to
freedom and to the Führership of his movement.
Göring has now stated in a letter to Negrelli that they
are no longer thinking in terms of an agreement...He therefore recommended that Mussolini humor the Ger-
man’s residual requests, given the unquestionably pro-Italian
Nazi line on the South Tyrol, namely the request for an inter-
view and the desequestration of Rudolfo Walther’s hotel. “To
allow the matter to go by the board would,” Bastianini submit-
ted, “create a disastrous impression of Italian and Fascist loyalty.”
Concluding that the luckless Hermann Göring had now been
awaiting a decision in Venice for six months, Bastianini urged