Had very interesting history class. Dr. Scannell told us how the Vatican and Castle Gandolfo outside Rome are ex-territorial, but still the Pope is hampered by censorship of letters, etc. Mussolini, the Prime Minister, evidently intends to grant the Pope a narrow strip of land, parallel to the Tiber, to the sea, so that ships with important messages and foreign ambassadors could be conducted to the Vatican without coming under Italian law. – Learnt also that Machiavelli was a historian of Florence who wrote a book ‘Il Principe’ dealing with the deceit and chicanery a prince should practise. Hence ‘Machiavellism’. – A wild wintry night. – Mám’s programme is developing wonderfully. It is a great education for me to be listening nightly to it.
