ABSTRACT
As we saw in chapter 6, by 1938 Mussolini, whether for pragmatic or ideological reasons, had opted for friendship with Germany and, like his fellow dictator, he was making no secret of his expansionist aims. In a speech to the Grand Council in February 1939 he announced his determination to break out of the ‘prison’ of the Mediterranean, a course of action which would bring him into conflict with Britain and France. He declared that the bars of the prison were ‘Corsica, Tunisia, Malta and Cyprus; its sentinels Gibraltar and Suez’, and added: ‘the tasks of Italian policy, which could not and does not have European territorial aims, save Albania, is in the first place to break the prison bars.’ 1
