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from January 30, 1933, the day Hitler became Chancellor, until the present time. The German
occupation of the Rhineland had been the first step in the reconstruction by Germany. That was a
step which today was accepted by the entire world as a rightful step, as a step which returned to
Germany an intrinsic part of Germany, and as a step which marked the end of. the regime of
Versailles. The Minister said that he was glad to remember that I myself in public addresses
had criticized the inequities of Versailles.
Then had come the consolidation of Austria into the German Reich. This had marked the
union of two severed portions of the old German Empire, of the old Roman Empire, and had
brought back into one German family German peoples who had always desired such union since
1919. It had been attained without the shedding of blood and in accordance with the will of the
overwhelming majority of the Austrian people.
Then had come the Sudeten question. Here again the German Government had desired no
more than the return to Germany of German peoples, who had been ground down under Czech
domination for twenty years. He detailed the efforts which Hitler had made to achieve a friendly
solution of this problem with the Czechoslovak Government, and the continuous obstacles which
other Governments had placed in the way of such an understanding. He narrated--it seemed to me
from memory--all of the pages in the German white books which had led up to the agreements of
Munich.
He emphasized the agreement entered into by Chamberlain and Hitler. And what had
happened only a few weeks later: Chamberlain and his Duff Coopers, Edens and Churchills had
announced in the British Parliament that Britain was embarking on