In November, 1922, I met, at Lausanne, Poincaré of France and Curzon of Great Britain. Let it be said that I re-established then and there, on my first personal contact with the Allies, our equality. There were some clear and precise interviews; some went on to a rather vivacious tune!
For the time had come for Italy, with its record of sacrifice and with the weight of its history, to enter into an equality of standing in discussions of an international nature side by side with England and France.
During my brief stay at Lausanne I held conferences also with the Foreign Minister of Rumania and with Mr. Richard Washburn Child, Ambassador of the United States in Rome, and chief of the United States delegation at the Conference. I eliminated also the question of the Dodecannes.
To sum up my trip to Switzerland; these were the results:
First, we made clear to foreign diplomats the new prestige of Italy.
Second, we gave examples of our new style in foreign policy at the moment of initiating a direct contact between myself and responsible diplomats of the world.
In December of that year, I made other important declarations to the council of the ministers about our foreign affairs. I examined again the Treaty of Rapallo. I began a solution of the problems of Fiume and Dalmatia, making that solution fit in with the situation created by the preceding treaties to which I had fallen heir. For the second time I met Lord Curzon, and then I went on to London, where I stayed for several days. On that occasion I was received with the most generous hospitality and found that I was listened to with respect by the English political world.
Already the question of the Allies’ debts was on the table. I had discussed this with Mr. Child and with the British ambassador in Rome. I had a plan that I do not hesitate to claim was one of the most efficacious for the solution of that problem. My plan aroused a certain interest among the Allies, but some divergencies of a secondary character, and particularly the design of France to occupy the Ruhr, killed that which in my opinion was the most logical solution of the debt question, combined with the problem of the German reparations. It was a solution which might have permitted a quick and powerful restoration of world economy.
Always before me in my foreign policy is the economic aspect of international problems. That was why in 1923 I concluded a series of commercial treaties, with a political background, with a number of nations. It amuses me to be called an anti-pacifist, in the light of our record of treaty-making for peace and for fair international dealings.
These commercial treaties were very helpful in settling our economic position. In February of 1923 I signed the Italian-Swiss treaty, concluded in Zurich; I ratified the Washington treaty for the limitation of naval armaments. Other commercial treaties were concluded with Czechoslovakia, with Poland, with Spain, and, finally, with France. I took the first steps to renew commercial relations with Soviet Russia.