though Göring now pleaded Walther’s case for exemption with
an obstinacy worthy of a better cause he had no option but to
sing for his supper in this way neither Bastianini nor Negrelli
would humor him.
Throughout the early summer of Göring stayed in
Rome, badgering Bastianini and Negrelli about the hotel in
Venice, about the loan to the Nazi party, and about the terms of
a secret deal to be signed between Mussolini and Hitler, the ex-
traordinary history of which was later summarized in a letter by
Bastianini to Mussolini:
In May [] I established contact with Mr.
Hermann Göring, a member of the Reichstag [this
was not so] and Adolf Hitler’s alter ego, introduced to
me by Negrelli. He expressed to me the strong wish of
his Führer and of his party to arrive at an agreement
with the P.N.F. [Fascist Party] because they are con-
vinced of the need for a close co-existence between It-
aly and Germany on the one hand, and between the
nationalists of the two countries on the other.Bastianini continued that Göring and Negrelli had between
them drafted two secret agreements, which they hoped Musso-
lini and Hitler would sign. “Your Excellency,” Bastianini would
remind Mussolini in November, “accepted them in substance
but rejected them in form.”
Unfortunately for his larger purpose, Göring continued to
pester Bastianini about the Walther hotel case, urging him to
take it up with Guido Jung, the politician who had the power to
arbitrate in such sequestration cases. When Bastianini fobbed
him off with solecisms, Göring became obnoxious and even more
importunate, writing to Negrelli anti-Semitic remarks about
Jung and the Banca Commerciale, the financial institution that