762.63/138: Telegram
The Ambassador in Italy (Long) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 30—2:45 p.m.]
18. I discussed with the German Ambassador today the Austrian-German situation. He is very definite in his statements that Hitler is opposed to Anschluss but just as definite in his statement that the Austrian people are German and that the natural development of their political activity will be a government in Austria sympathetic to the German Nazis. He said that he realized that if the Germans participated in the erection of a Nazi state that Italy would not sit complacently and watch it but that he was sure the German Government would not participate. He did not expect any immediate development but thought it would come eventually and in normal course.
Mailed to Paris, London, Berlin, Vienna, Geneva.