| Description | This file consists of photocopies of typed and handwritten correspondence between Count Grandi, the Italian Ambassador in London, and the Italian Foreign Office in Rome relating to payments made by Mussolini's government to Mosley's organisation, the British Union of Fascists from 1933 to 1934. These letters give details about the amounts of money transferred by the government into a Swiss bank account and other sums sent through intermediaries who acted as couriers, and emphasise the need for these transactions to remain a secret. /5 is a letter written at the end of Dec 1933 which mentions Mosley's forthcoming visit to Rome and a planned audience he expected to have with Mussolini in Jan 1934. /7 is the most detailed letter. It is dated 30 Jan 1934 and written by Count Grandi to Mussolini. It contains an account of Grandi's conversations with Mosley in which he spoke about the support of Lord Rothermere for his organisation, and the impact this is likely to have on the success of his political movement. It also contains Grandi's impressions of English political opinion and the likelihood of Mosley's ideas gaining support in the country. /12 is a letter dated 1939, giving details about the organisation and membership of the B.U.F.
The file also contains /13: photocopy of pages from an unidentified book written in Italian about Mussolini which includes a footnote citing the Grandi letters to Mussolini, and /14: copy of David Irving's broadsheet 'Focal Point', Oct 1981, which includes an article based on these letters, which he discovered in Italian archives while doing other research.
Nicholas Mosley states in 'Beyond the Pale' that Irving made the Italian letters available to him, and he makes use of them in this work, reproducing a facsimile of the letter dated 29 Dec 1933, of which several photocopies exist in this file. Nicholas Mosley also seems to have had some of the letters translated. The file includes typescript translations and a letter dated Mar 1983 from the translator.
Other documents seem to have been translated before being photocopied; there are manuscript English translations at the bottom of several of the letters. |