Great Britain has asked Benito Mussolini to define Italy's "exact position" regarding the European War before May 16, it was reported in diplomatic circles tonight shortly after German quarters indicated that the Allies may attack in the Mediterranean area "within a few days."

The British demarches was considered tantamount to a direct question as to whether Italy is neutral or at war. It coincided with a report that Pope Plus XII has transmitted to President Roosevelt a suggestion that the moment may be at hand for a "final effort" to secure general European peace before Italy is drawn into the war.

Fleet As Warning?

Some diplomatic sources suggested that the dispatch of British and French battle fleets to the Eastern Mediterranean last week was connected with the request sent to Mussolini.

The predictions of a possible Allied attack in the Mediterranean-Balkan zone were carried in the German press which gave bold headlines to "enormous tension in the Mediterranean" and "Balkans expect English attack."

"The neutrals expect some sort of a blow from the Allies within the next few days," said the Boersen Zeitung. "No one knows just where it will occur but all agree that the matter already has been decided and that the Allies will trample all neutral rights."

Nazie Sink Three Ships

The Allies, meanwhile, admitted in official communiques that Nazi bombing planes have sunk three more destroyers off the Norwegian coast where Germany's air superiority has driven the British and French expeditionary forces to a new battlefront above the Arctic Circle. The ships belonged to England, France and Poland.

The British ship was the 11th British destroyer known to have been lost since the start of the conflict.

The Allied siege of the iron-ore port of Narvik appeared to have been stalled by snowstorms. The War Office said there was "nothing to report" from that Norwegian battlefront.