The French Foreign Minister said that France, which. w rightly con-fe ned in her security, understood low to participate in reconciling tons, while Signor Mussolini had written the finest page in the history of modern Italy, The ruins of ancient Rome, he ae declared, constituted a warning not to allow humanity to fall back into the darkness which it had ' known for so many centuries, Signor Mussolini "declared that italy and France were working not jonly for a dual agreement between the two countries, but also for a furtherance of ideals which the two nations inherited from common origin, They were not working, he stated, renounce respective friend: ips in Central Europe, but to harmonise their interests and necessities, fu the cause of peace. There was no jauestion of excluding other nations, he concluded.
During. the banquet, M. Laval presented Ti Duce with the Grand Cross of the Logion of Honour, while Signor Mussolini presented the French Foreign Minister with the Grand Cross of St. Mauritius and waiting journalists when he left the Embassy for his hotel.
Four documents embodying the texts of the agreements will be signed, Signor Mussolini representing Italy and M. Laval, France. The documents are— the old Austro-Hungarian monarchy {0 Jconclude a convention in respect of theft Frontiers and of non-intervention, '3A. consultative "pact in" which France and. Ttaly undertake to consult together if the Independence of Austria "threatened. Germany, Hunsary, C2echcelovakia, "Yugoslavia, Poland' and iywanta wit be isto' ie fein 4A." convention "regulating colonial problems of France and Italy in Northern Africa
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.