The Easter Pact also called Easter agreement (in Italian Patto di Pasqua or Accordi di Pasqua) was an agreement between the United Kingdom and Italy signed April 16, 1938. It ended the Mediterranean and Red Sea litigations between the two countries and validate the status quo of territorial sphere of influence specially in Arabia, Abbysinia and Lake Tsana[1].
Italy was officially neutral until Mussolini declared war on Britain and France on 10 June 1940. Hence in January 1940 Henry Tizard the scientific advisor to the Air Ministry was asked by the Air Staff to go to Italy to make a provisional agreement for the manufacture and supply of a small weapon, the Manzolini bomb. Embassy officials in Rome explained that they would welcome an order worth four million pounds, as the British Government had guaranteed to spend twenty million pounds in Italy during the year. But when Tizard returned from Rome, the Air Staff felt there was now no need for the bomb, though the British Ambassador in Rome had suggested they could be bought and handed over to the Finns for use against the Russians. [2]