"المحاضر الإيطالية عن الساحل الأفريقي المُطل على البحر الأحمر" [ظ‎‎١‎٣‎٠] (٣٢/١٦)

16
On the 15th June Sir A. Paget (No. 252) re
ported an important conversation he had had with
Baron Blanc on the subject.* The Baron said that
it was perhaps not right to criticise the acts of a
former administration, but at the same time it was
impossible to deny that they had left to their
successors two legacies of a very unenviable
character; he alluded to the question of Tunis and
to the establishment at Assab Bay.
He would not now stop to inquire into the
manner in which the difficulties connected with
those two questions might have been avoided. The
present Ministry for Foreign Affairs had to deal
with the situation as they found it.
With regard to Tunis, it was too late now, he
said, to remedy what had been done, but it was not
too late to take measures for preventing any mis
understanding with England with reference to
Assab Bay.
There was no concealing the fact, he continued,
that the position of Italy in regard to that question
was not correct, and he appealed to Sir A. Paget to
endeavour to induce Her Majesty’s Government to
assist the Italian Government in regulating it (“ afin
de la regulariser ”). An instruction had been pre
pared for General Menabrea, he said, to lay the case
before Lord Granville, and he believed _ it was the
intention of M. Mancini to speak to Sir A. Paget
upon it. For his own part, he did not hesitate to
say that, rather than leave the question in its
present state, and run the risk of a further mis
understanding with England upon it, he would
infinitely prefer to wind up the whole affair
(“ liquider toute 1 ’affaire”), and to withdraw alto
gether from Assab. To do this, however, would,
he said, produce a very had impression upon the
country; it would be felt as another humiliation
experienced at the hands of England, after the
recent one which had been inflicted upon Italy by
France. It was in the power, however, of the
English Government to obviate the difficulty, by
recognizing in some way or other the position
which Italy had taken up ; and in the course of his
observations he threw out the idea of the possibility
of an English Consul or Vice Consul being ap
pointed to Assab. The Italian Government^ he
said, would be ready to agree to' any conditions
which Her Majesty’s Government might consider
necessary as a security against the Italian colony
■ever becoming a source of menace to the com
munications with India, or an embarrassment in
* From Foreign Office, 30th
No. 453.
any way to English interests.
In reply, after referring briefly to his various
conversations with M. Cairoli and Count Maffei on
the subject of Assab, and to the formal declaration
in writing, which in April of last year he had
received, that no establishment of a military
character would ever be formed by the Italian
Government at Assab, of which due note had been
taken by Her Majesty’s Government, Sir A. Paget