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28 Nov.
45
southeastern Europe
about 6 months ago, told the Yugoslavs that they would get a part of
Carinthia when a National Socialist Government came into power in
Austria .... The Nazi seed sown in Yugoslavia had been sufficient to
cause trouble and there are undoubtedly a good many people there who
look with a great deal of benevolence on those Nazi refugees who went
to Yugoslavia in the days following July 25.'
"Germany
made like promises of territorial gains to Hungary and to Poland in
order to gain their cooperation or at least their acquiescence in the
proposed dismemberment of Czechoslovakia. As I learned from my
diplomatic colleagues in Vienna, Von Papen and Von Mackensen in
Vienna and in Budapest in 1935 were spreading the idea of division of
Czechoslovakia, in which division Germany was to get Bohemia, Hungary
to get Slovakia, and Poland the rest. This did not deceive any of
these countries for they knew that the intention of Nazi Germany was
to take all.
"The Nazi German Government did not
hesitate to make inconsistent promises when it suited its immediate
objective. I recall the Yugoslav Minister in Vienna saying to me in
1934 or 1935 that Germany had made promises to Hungary of Yugoslav
territory while at the same time promising to Yugoslavs portions of
Hungarian territory. The Hungarian Minister in Vienna later gave me
the same information.
"I should emphasize here in this
statement that the men who made these promises were not only the 'dyed
in the wool' Nazis but more conservative Germans who already had begun
willingly to lend themselves to the Nazi program. In an official
dispatch to the Department of State from Vienna dated October 10,
1935, I wrote as follows:
"'Europe will not get away
from the myth that Neurath, Papen, and Mackensen are not dangerous
people and that they are "diplomats of the old school." They
are in fact servile instruments of the regime and just because the
outside world looks upon them as harmless, they are able to work more
effectively. They are able to sow discord just because they propagate
the myth that they are not in sympathy with the regime.' "
I find that last paragraph
very important and worthy of emphasis. In other words, Nazi Germany was
able to promote these divisions and increase its own aggressive strength
by using as its agents in making these promises men who on outward
appearances were merely conservative diplomats. It is true that the
Nazis
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