No. 306 :
M. Francois-Poncet, French Ambassador in Rome, to M. Georges Bonnet, Minister for Foreign Affairs. Rome, August 31, 1939.

(Received by telephone at 15 p.m.)

CONFIRMATION of telephone message to M. Georges Bonnet at 12.50 p.m., August 31.

Count Ciano summoned me at 12.35 p.m. to the Palazzo Chigi. He made the following verbal communication to me:

Signor Mussolini offers, if France and England agree, to invite Germany to a conference which will take place on September 5 with the object of examining the clauses of the Treaty of Versailles which are the cause of the present trouble. The invitation to Germany will be sent to the latter only after France and Great Britain have given their assent.

Count Ciano made the same communication to the British Ambassador.

He requests an immediate reply for fear that hostilities may begin in the meantime.

Francois-Poncet.