1. Baron Pompeo Alsoisi, Journal (25 Juillet 1932–14 Juin 1936). ed. Mario Toscano (Paris, 1957).
2. The reference is to the tripartite Anglo-French-Italian agreement of 13 Dec 1906 respecting Ethiopia. For the text, see BFSP XCIX 486–9. From the Italian point of view the vital provision of the agreement was article IV, which divided Ethiopia into spheres of influence, alloting to Britain the headwaters of the Nile and its tributaries, to France the hinterland of the French Somali Coast protectorate and ‘the zone necessary for the construction and working of the railway from Jibuti to Addis Ababa’, and to Italy the hinterland of her possessions ‘in Erythrea [sic] and Somaliland’ and ‘the territorial connection between them to the west of Addis Ababa’. This arrangement was only to take place in the event of a disturbance in the status quo in Ethiopia, which the three Powers pledged themselves to uphold. The British government denounced this agreement in 1923, but it remained binding on France and Italy. There is a very considerable documentation in French and Italian on this agreement. See Documents diplomatiques français, 2nd series, VI, VII and VIII passim. For the most recent Italian discussion, see Carlo Giglio, ‘La Questione del lago Tana (1902–1941)’, in Rivista di Studi Politici Internazionali, XVIII iv (Oct-Dec 1951) 643–86; this is extensively footnoted. The only British reference is in British Documents on the Origins of the War. 1898–1974. VIII, no. 9.
3. The vital extracts have been published from the microfilm of the original now in the American National Archives by William C. Askew, ‘The Secret Agreement between France and Italy on Ethiopia, January 1935’, Journal of Modern History, xxv i (March 1953)