Four-Power Pact

The Four-Power Pact, also known as the Quadripartite Agreement, was an international treaty between the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Nazi Germany that was initialed on 7 June 1933 and signed on 15 July 1933 in the Palazzo Venezia, Rome.

[1] The creator and chief promoter of the pact was Benito Mussolini,[2][3][4][5] who completed its original manuscript during one of his short stays at Rocca delle Caminate, in March 1933.

[6][a] Against the backdrop of the Great Depression and the Nazi rise to power, Mussolini called for the creation of the Four-Power Pact on 19 March 1933 as a better means of ensuring international security.

Representatives of the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy signed a diluted version of Mussolini's Four-Power Pact proposal.

MacDonald was the first to come to Italy to discuss the pact, anticipating Mussolini, according to Salata, evidently informed of the Duce's idea.

[13] In the same month von Papen hailed the "genial idea of Mussolini",[13] while Hitler, in his 17 May speech, reiterated his support and approval of the pact.

When it was thought that the four powers had reached an agreement, with the 31 May issue of the Times even giving for granted the publication of the pact for the following day,[15] it turned out that France had agreed by negotiating on a previous version of the treaty, different from those considered at the moment by the other countries, and everything had to be started over again.

The French ambassador de Jouvenel, a strong supporter of Mussolini's pact, took the blame on himself, adding that any mistakes must have happened in good faith.

Eventually the four great powers agreed on an apparently more generic version of the article 3, proposed by the British, and close to the original draft by Mussolini.

[21] In the protocol of the initials it was agreed that, whatever the day of the signature, the pact would bear the date of 7 June 1933, an expressive act of the will of the governments.