The Wilmington morning star., 1945-06-22

the policy about Albania since he
could not see the point of risking
so much ''to win a few stones"
Q. That the offer of a title for
II Duce was made to forestall any
repetition by the Fascists OF the I'M
expected humiliation inflicted on
the King when II Duce, without the
Kings knowledge, was made Mar
shall Of the Empire
8. That Konrad of Bavaria had
heard in Monaco that Mussolini is
called the gauleiter German gov
ernor) of Italy,
I'll Duce was commenting bitter
| ly. He said, If Hitler had had to
deal with King. he would never
have been able to take Austria and
Czechoslovakia."
MARCH S-"Madrid has fallen.
:. 1t is formidable victory for
Fascism, perhaps the greatest so
far. II Duce is overjoyed point
ing to the atlas opened at Spain.
he said, Tt has been open there
for almost three years, and that is
enough. Now l must open it at
another page He has Albania in
mind.
The AK Is Ready to Fall On Al
bania.
MARCH 29-"Two meetings with
II Duce about Albania He made
these points precisely:
l. Army, navy and air force :.
will be ready Saturday;
g. Jacomini minister to Al
bania) must exert diplomatic pres
sure on the King (Zog);
3.-Unless he accedes we will
send ships into Albanian territorial
waters and present an ultimatum;
4. If he persists in refusing, we
will remove the blindfold, publish
the declarations, and land;
5. Having occupied Tirana CAL
banian capitaD, we shall summon
the Albanian chiefs to a constituent
assembly and, with Mussolini pre-
siding, will offer the crown to the
King of Italy. No one will react"
MARCH 81. King Fog pre-
pares to resist, matter which
annoys me greatly, because l con-
slider it dangerous to fire the first
shot in this disturbed and in
hammable Europe
APRIL 1.-'Tomorrow Jacomini
will appear before the King Cog
with an outline of the treaty. Should
he refuse, disorders will break out
in all of Albania Thursday, making
Intervention necessary. We shall
land Friday morning.
During the afternoon. Serezzi,
the new minister from Albania,
i came to me-. On the pretext that
he was unable to exchange his Al
banian money, he obtained a loan
of $4,000 lire from Jacomini which
consider an initial bribe.''
APRIL 2.-"Jaconini telegraph
ed an Albanian counter-proposal,
presented before II Duce's ultima
tum, but we ignored it. At my sug-
geStion, II Duce decided to order
a demonstration by 100 planes over
Durazzo, Tirana and Valona.
a P.M...From the telegraph Of
flee we learn that long code mes
Sages are moving from Tirana to
the foreign office Gin London). We
cannot stop them. I give orders,
3however, that they be delayed, and
that many errors in the code signs
be made.
~ P. M. . Badoglio field mar
shall, later prime minister)) wrote
a letter to II Duce criticizing the
plan of operations. II Duce paid no
attention to it.
"9 P. M. communicated to Viii
lani Hungary and to Won Mac
kensen Germany our decision to
proceed with the military occupa-
ton. logs son was born at dawn.
How long will he be heir to the
throne?'
Germany Behaves" And Duce
Is Calm.
APRIL 5. - Germany behaves
well. Won Ribbentrop has indicated
that Berlin looks with sympathy on
our action at Tirana because VIC
tory for Italy represents strengthen
ed Axis power..1l Duce. is calm,
fearfully calm. He has decided to
march even though all the world
be pitted against him.
! On April Z Ciano flew over
Durazzo as landing forces went
ashore and over Tirana where he
reported the streets empty and the
Italian legation barricaded.
| APRIL Tt informed II Duce
who was quite satisfied, particr-
larly since international reaction
was almost nonexistent. The mem
orandun which Lord Perth Brit.
ish ambassador left with me dur
ing a cordial visit might have been
composed in our office"
APRIL 81 arrived in Tirana
at 1920 after flying over the
armored column which is march.
Ing on the Albanian capital. Il must
admit that powerful emotion has
possessed me-. Il received many Al.
bantam delegations which paid me
homage. I said that Italy will re.
spect Albanian independence. All
our fears of resistance in the noun.