MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: I respectfully submit that the answers are not responsive, and I repeat the question.
Did Seyss-Inquart become Chancellor of Austria with an understanding that he would call in the German troops and surrender Austria to Germany, or did you lead him to believe that he could continue an independent Austria?
GÖRING: Excuse me, but that is a number of questions which I cannot answer simply with “yes” or “no.”
If you ask me, “Did Seyss-Inquart become Chancellor according to Hitler’s wishes and yours?”—yes.
If you then ask me, “Did he become Chancellor with the understanding that he should send a telegram for troops to march in?”—I say, “No,” because at the time of the Chancellorship there was no question of his sending us a telegram.
If you ask me, thirdly, “Did he become Chancellor on the understanding that he would be able to maintain an independent Austria?”—then I have to say again that the final turn of events was not clear in the Führer’s mind on that evening.
That is what I tried to explain.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Is it not true that you suspected that he might want to remain as independent as possible, and that that was one of the reasons why the troops were marched in?
GÖRING: No. Excuse me, there are two questions: I strongly suspected that Seyss-Inquart wanted to be as independent as possible. The sending of troops had nothing at all to do with that suspicion; not a single soldier would have been needed for that. I gave my reasons for the sending of the troops.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: But it was never intimated to Seyss-Inquart that Austria would not remain independent until after—as you put it—the Führer and you were in control of Austria’s fate? Is that a fact?