THE protocol in which Fascist Italy pledged close political and economic collaboration with the Franco regime in Spain on November 28, 1936 is well known.' The documents reproduced here indicate that Mussolini's earlier intention in 1934, when he first pledged Italian aid against the Spanish republic, was to work for the restoration of the monarchy. These earlier agreements have remained rather obscure, although a somewhat inexact copy of the proces-verbal, based on a rough draft, was published as early as 1938.2 Of perhaps even greater significance than these documents is the evidence from the Segreteria Particolare del Duce that by early 1942 all was not well between Italian fascism and the regime it had done so much to create in Spain. In February 1942 Ernesto Carpi, who apparently had Mussolini's ear on Spanish matters, sought to convince Il Duce that Italy should shift from a policy