“I informed General Göring of the situation in writing, and G. just had me informed that I should try my utmost to prevent you, or any one else, from taking this step. This is also in the same vein as G.’s conversation with Dr. J. before Christmas; at any rate, G. requests you to undertake nothing of this nature under any circumstances before he himself has the opportunity of speaking with you once more.
“I can also inform you that G. is, furthermore, making an effort to speak to Ll., in order that certain improper conditions be eliminated by him.”
Then the letter is signed by Keppler.
The two letters together, if the Tribunal please, show clearly enough the extent to which this defendant was a tool, the extent to which he was being used at that time by the conspirators in their planning for their assault on Austria. Now, once German troops were in Austria and Seyss-Inquart had become Chancellor, he lost no time carrying out the plan of his Nazi fellow conspirators.
I next offer in evidence Document 3254-PS, which is a memorandum written by the Defendant Seyss-Inquart entitled, “The Austrian Question.” It is Exhibit Number USA-704. I offer it only because of the description which he gives of the manner in which he secured the passage of an Austrian act in annexing Austria to Germany. He said that on March 13 German officials brought him a proposal for inviting Austria into Germany. They reported that. . .
THE PRESIDENT: Are you quoting?
LT. ATHERTON: I now quote from the middle of Page 20 of the English text:
“I called a meeting of the Council of Ministers, after having been told by Dr. Wolf that the Bundespräsident would make no difficulties in regard to that realization; he would return to his home in the meantime and would await me there. On my proposal the Council of Ministers assembled in the meantime adopted the draft bill to which my law section had made some formal modifications. The vote on the 20th of April had been planned already in the first draft. According to the provisions of the Constitution of 1 May 1934, any fundamental modification of the Constitution could be decided by the Council of Ministers with the approbation of the Bundespräsident. A vote or a confirmation by the nation was in no way provided for. In the event that the Bundespräsident should, for any reason, either resign his functions or be for some time unable to fulfill them, his prerogatives were to go over to the Bundeskanzler. I went to the Bundespräsident with Dr. Wolf. The President told me that he did not know whether this development would be of benefit to the Austrian nation but that he did not wish to interfere and preferred to resign his functions, so that all constitutional rights would come into my hands.”
And then, skipping two or three sentences to the top of Page 21: