In 1926, while on a mission to Italy, where he was to negotiate a loan and pave the way for the friendship treaty signed between the two countries, he met the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and became his admirer (calling the Fascist regime "a truly constructive political revolution, one that can only compare itself with the great French revolution in scale and novelty"). Subsequently, he was active in collaboration with the "Comitati d'azione per l'universalità di Roma" and other Italian-led projects of international cooperation.