ABSTRACT
Before examining the discussions and decisions which followed the Italian declaration of war and the French surrender, it will be convenient, first, to consider briefly the assertion that plans were made in London to offer Malta to Mussolini in the summer of 1940 as an inducement to maintain his neutrality and to influence Hitler to offer Britain reasonable peace terms. Mark Arnold-Forster has written that, at the end of May 1940, Halifax and Chamberlain had developed ‘precise’ plans that ‘involved offering Malta and other British colonies to Mussolini…in return for his interceding with Hitler to obtain peace terms for Britain’. 1 This assertion is based on the official record of War Cabinet discussions between 26 and 28 May, and contemporary diary entries, including those of Halifax and Chamberlain. 2 These key discussions were prompted by a flying visit to London, on Sunday 26 May, by the French Prime Minister, Paul Reynaud, who urged that Mussolini be offered specific territorial concessions in order to remain neutral and to intercede with Hitler. He assumed that Mussolini would require the ‘demilitarisation of Malta’, and he stressed, then and later, that ‘geographical precision’ was essential.
