BERLIN, March 3, 1940.
 
          I had an interview with Dr. Schacht at the private house of Mr. Kirk upon my return to
 
Berlin from my interview with Field Marshal Goering.
 
          Dr. Schacht told me that he was grateful for my having requested the Foreign Office to 
 
arrange this interview with him, since, if I had not taken the step in that way, it would have been 
 
impossible for him to see me. He had taken the precaution, he said, to call the day before upon 
 
Hitler, whom he had not seen for many months, to ask whether he had Hitler's permission to 
 
talk with me. He said that Hitler had given him permission, but with the understanding that Dr. 
 
Schacht was to return to see Hitler the day following my departure, in order to relate to him
 
the topics discussed in our conversation.
 
          Dr. Schacht said: "I cannot write a letter, I cannot have a conversation, I cannot 
 
telephone, I cannot move, without its being known."
 
          Then, leaning over and talking in a whisper, he said, "If what I am going to tell you now 
 
is known, I will be dead within a week." He gave me to understand that a movement was under 
 
way, headed by leading generals, to supplant the Hitler regime. He said that the one obstacle 
 
which stood in the path of the accomplishment of this objective was the lack of assurance on the 
 
part of these generals that, if such a movement took place, the Allies would give positive 
 
guarantees to Germany that Germany would be permitted to regain her rightful place in the
 
world, and that Germany would not be treated as she had been