863.00/1494
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State
The German Ambassador called upon his own request. He immediately proceeded to say that he came on his own initiative and without instructions from his Government; that he came in order to inform me of the reasons which prompted the action of the German Government towards Austria on yesterday. He then proceeded to refer to the conference held two weeks ago between Chancellor Hitler and Schuschnigg of Austria, upon the invitation of Mr. Hitler, at Berchtesgaden; and said that at that conference a full agreement was made which would stabilize the Austrian situation and bring about more satisfactory relations between Germany and Austria in the future and that this was all that was contemplated; that to the great surprise of Mr. Hitler, Schuschnigg on March 9th suddenly departed from these agreements by giving notice that a plebiscite would be held three days later to determine Austria’s course and which course it was expected would be different from that agreed upon with Chancellor Hitler some weeks before; that as a result of this attempted departure and violation of the understanding, uprisings and violent clashes of [Page 429] arms were taking place in Austria to the detriment, especially of Germans residing there, and that it was in these circumstances that the action of yesterday came about.
I then propounded two questions. The first was—what was the opinion of the Ambassador as to the prospects of peace hereafter, and he promptly replied with an air of confidence and finality that there was no occasion now for military hostilities, since the Austrian matter has been settled, and that there would be none. I then said that I noticed from the despatches that German troops had gone to the Brenner Pass and stationed themselves there and that I wondered whether there would be any possibility of Italy’s striking a match, so to speak, at that point and in those circumstances. (I was leading up by indirection to the purpose of securing an expression from the Ambassador of the present and prospective relations between Germany and Italy.) The Ambassador promptly replied that in the first place he doubted if any German troops had gone as far as the Brenner Pass; that if they have gone to the Pass and stationed themselves there it is merely to assist Austrian troops in preserving order and guarding against outbreaks; that there would be no occasion whatever for any flare-up by Italy in view of the absolutely cordial relations between Germany and Italy which have existed heretofore and which continue to exist to the same full and wholeheartedly cordial and agreeable extent. The Ambassador, in other words, sought unhesitatingly to convince me that the relations between Italy and Germany are as close as they were before the Austrian flare-up and during past months and that by every inference they would so continue so far as the present outlook is concerned.
Upon leaving, I thanked the Ambassador heartily for giving me the above information.