5
Dec. 45
lot
of things that a strong Anglo-French
coalition would never tolerate.
"This
position would arise for instance if
England, through insufficient armament
or as a result of threats to her empire
by a superior coalition of powers, for
example, Germany, Italy, Japan, thereby
tying down her military forces in other
places, would not be able to assure
France of sufficient support in Europe."
The
next page goes on to discuss the possibilities
of a strong partnership between Italy and Japan,
and I would pass from my quotation to the next
page where the writer is summarizing his ideas.
Paragraph 5:
"Therefore,
conclusions to be drawn by us.
"1.
Outwardly, further understanding with
England in regard to the protection of
the interests of our friends.
"2.
Formation under great secrecy, but with
whole-hearted tenacity of a coalition
against England, that is to say, a
tightening of our friendship with Italy
and Japan, also the winning over of all
nations whose interests conform with
ours directly or indirectly.
"Close
and confidential co-operation of the
diplomats of the three great powers
towards this purpose. Only in this way
can we confront England, be it in a
settlement or in war. England is going
to to be a hard and astute opponent in
this game of diplomacy.
"The
particular question whether, in the
event of a war by Germany in Central
Europe . . ." — I am afraid
the translation of this is not very good
— "The particular question
whether, in the event of a war by
Germany in Central Europe, France, and
thereby England, would interfere,
depends on the circumstances and the
time at which such a war commences and
ceases, and on military considerations
which cannot be gone into here."
And
whoever it was that wrote that document appears
to be on a fairly high level, because he
concludes by saying:
"I
should like to give the Führer some
of these points of view verbally."
That
document is GB-28.
Well, I am afraid
that the next two documents have gotten into
Your books in the wrong order. If you would
refer to 2357-PS which is the one following our
L-43 — it will be remembered that document
to the Führer which I have just read was
dated the 2d of January 1938.