762.63/78
The Chargé in Germany (Gordon) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received June 3.]
Sir: In continuation of despatch No. 2341 of April 27, 1933, I have the honor to report that, in view of his avowed policy of Eastward expansion, Hitler’s apparent—though indirect—efforts to realize the Austrian Anschluss doubtless have motives more tangible than a sentimental desire for the unification of the German speaking nations, or the pious wish to include the town of his birth in the Reich over which he rules. While present day Austria is a small country in which party strife would seem to be the only flourishing activity at the moment, Vienna, as the natural and traditional gateway to South-eastern Europe, is the key to German influence in that direction.
Parenthetically, Austria also would for the moment appear to be the key to a large portion of the entire complex of German-Italian relations. While the community of interest between the two now Fascist nations has been stressed in both countries (surely, in great measure, for internal consumption), points of potential political conflict are apparent, and Austria appears to be the axis about which an important part of the shifting political constellation at present revolves.
In pursuing his immediate plans Hitler is seemingly employing a procedure which has become familiar through his tactics in Germany since coming into power. The initial activity is left to the Nazi Party organizations which, as in the case of the Jewish boycott and the seizure of the German Labor Unions, go ahead blithely, sure of recognition by the National Government when the “dirty work” has been successfully done. It is in this light that the formation and activity [Page 428] of the Austrian sections of the Nazi Party must doubtless be viewed, and this easily accounts for the rage of the Nazi controlled German press at the check experienced by the Austrian Nazis.
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Respectfully yours,