“The Chancellor said that he would give his decision by 1400 hours. While I was with Glaise-Horstenau and Dr. Schuschnigg, I was repeatedly called to the telephone to speak to Göring.”
THE PRESIDENT: Has this been read already?
LT. ATHERTON: No, Sir; this document has not been in before.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
LT. ATHERTON: “He informed . . . me that the agreement of 12 February had been cancelled and demanded Dr. Schuschnigg’s resignation and my appointment as Chancellor.”
The Tribunal has heard the other side of that story, the actual telephone conversations. And then, finally, the next two paragraphs, he tells how Keppler repeatedly urged him to send a telegram calling on Germany to send troops, and that at first he refused but finally acquiesced, and I now read from the next to the last paragraph:
“As I am able to gather from the records available, I was requested about 10 p. m. to give my sanction to another somewhat altered telegram about which I informed President Miklas and Dr. Schuschnigg. Finally President Miklas appointed me Chancellor, and a little while later he approved my list of proposed ministers.”
If the Tribunal will recall, the telegram in question called on Hitler, on behalf of the Provisional Austrian Government, to send German troops as soon as possible in order to support it in its task and help it to prevent bloodshed. The text of the telegram, as printed in Volume 6 of the Dokumente der Deutschen Politik, appears as Document 2463-PS of the document book. It is interesting to note that the text of this telegram is substantially identical with that dictated by Göring over the phone to Keppler on the evening of the 11th of March, which appears on Page 575 (Volume II, Page 420) of the Record.
Now, on the next morning, again referring to the statement of the defendant, he admits that he telephoned Hitler. . .