Gasparri sends Pacelli a further explanation of his remarks about the future governing of Palestine - July 2, 1918
Source: Timeline
July 2, 1918 Gasparri sends Pacelli a further explanation of his remarks about the future governing of Palestine.
English translation
July 2, 1918 Gasparri to Pacelli:
Dearest Monsignore,
I have received your no. 7191, concerning my letter to Eminence Bourne.
The reason or motive that occasioned my letter was essentially the following. In the Times and the Morning Post of London, it was published that I had deplored that Palestine had been occupied by a Power that did not have the true faith, that is England. I replied that this is absolutely false, that indeed I maintained that England, in preference to all other Powers, would give assurance of order, respect for established rights, and improvement of the Holy Places. In truth, I believed I had written: in preference to other Powers, but I am moving on.
With the words: in preference, etc., I did not intend and could not intend to make a comparison between England and all the other Powers of the whole world, but between England and the other co-occupying Powers, that is France, Italy and (at least in rights under agreement) Russia; and the other Powers mentioned in speeches by highly important men of state and the most serious newspapers as probable successors to Turkey in Palestine, that is the Greeks, the Arabs and the Hebrews. The other Powers of the world, Germany, America, Austria, etc., not excluding Turkey, were not in question, thus my words could not refer to them. Now I certainly prefer England to all the other Powers named above, as better explained in my previous letter.
This is the meaning of my words; I expect You to get that into the thick skulls ofthe Germans.
Affectionate greetings,
P.C.G.