On 31 August 1936 the War Minister, Von Blomberg, sent to Schacht a copy of Von Blomberg’s letter to the Defendant Göring. I refer the Tribunal again to 1301-PS, previously submitted in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-123, and read from the middle of Page 19 of the document. The page numbers, if the Court please, on this document are found in the upper lefthand corner:
“According to an order of the Führer the setting up of all Air Force units is to be completed on 1 April 1937. Therefore considerable expenditures have to be made in 1936, which at the time when the budget for 1936 was made were planned for later years only.”
This intensification of the air force program certainly revealed to Schacht the closeness to war which Hitler must have felt.
I also offer in evidence Document EC-416, Exhibit USA-635, consisting of minutes of the Cabinet meeting of 4 September 1936 which Schacht attended. I read the statement by Göring found at the top of Page 2 of this document:
“The Führer and Reichskanzler has given a memorandum to the Colonel General and the Reich War Minister which represents a general instruction for the execution of this task.
“It starts from the basic thought that the show-down with Russia is inevitable.”
Schacht thus knew that Hitler expected war with Russia. He also knew of Hitler’s ambitions towards the east. It must have been plain to him, therefore, that such a war would result from Russian opposition to German military expansion in that direction; that is, Schacht must have known that it would be a war of German aggression.
In January 1937, the Tribunal will recall, Schacht stated to Ambassador Davies in Berlin that he had “been authorized by his government” to submit certain proposals to France and England which, in fact, amounted to a bid for colonies under threat of war. If Schacht was acting under instructions from Hitler, he was necessarily familiar with Hitler’s aggressive intentions at that time.
In November of 1937 Schacht knew Hitler was determined to acquire Austria and at least autonomy for the Germans of Bohemia and that Hitler also had designs on the Polish Corridor. I refer the Tribunal to Document L-151, already in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-70, this being a letter containing a memorandum of a conversation between Schacht and Ambassador Bullitt, dated 23 November 1937. I quote the last paragraph on Page 2: