PUHL: No, I did not perceive a special reason.
MR. DODD: Then why were you telling Thoms that it was highly secret and he was to tell anybody who asked him about it that he was forbidden to speak about it? You didn’t ordinarily instruct your people to that effect, did you?
PUHL: Because I myself had received this instruction.
MR. DODD: That may be so, but that was a special secrecy, wasn’t it? That wasn’t your ordinary and customary way of doing business?
PUHL: The confiscated articles were usually rejected when they reached us; if the exception which we made in this case became known, then it would immediately have provided an example for others; and that we wanted to avoid under all circumstances.
MR. DODD: You didn’t want to discuss this matter on the telephone with Pohl of the SS, did you? You asked him to come to your office rather than talk about it on the telephone?
PUHL: Yes.
MR. DODD: Why was that, if it was just an ordinary business transaction?
PUHL: Because one never knew to what extent the telephone was being tapped, and thus the transaction might have become known to others.
MR. DODD: Well, you didn’t talk to anybody much on the telephone; is that right? You were a man that never used the telephone out of the Reichsbank? Now, I think you realize fully well that there was a special reason in this case for not wanting to talk on the telephone and I think you should tell the Tribunal what it was.