[NUREMBERG TRIALS]: HALIFAX EARL OF (1881-1959) British politician who held several senior ministerial posts ...

[NUREMBERG TRIALS]: HALIFAX EARL OF (1881-1959) British politician who held several senior ministerial posts including Secretary of State for War 1935 and Foreign Secretary 1938-40. Halifax was the British Ambassador to the United States 1940-46. Halifax was one of the architects of the policy of appeasement of Adolf Hitler in 1936-38, working closely with Neville Chamberlain. However, after Kristallnacht and the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in March 1939 he was one who pushed for a new policy of attempting to deter further German aggression by promising to go to war to defend Poland. An historically important D.S., Halifax, two pages, folio, n.p. (Washington DC), n.d. (22nd March 1946). The typed document is headed Reply to Interrogatory submitted by the Counsel for the Defence of Freiherr von Neurath in the present trial before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg by the Right Honourable the Earl of Halifax, His Britannic Majesty's Ambassador at Washington, D.C. and commences with three questions submitted to Halifax, 'Question 1. On the occasion of your visit to Berlin in November 1937 did you in effect declare to Freiherr von Neurath, then Reich Foreign Minister, when discussing the Austrian question ''that the English people would not understand why they should be embroiled in a war against Germany, because two German states wished to amalgamate?''. Question 2. Did you wish to give Freiherr von Neurath, Reich Foreign Minister, to understand that the British Government had no objection to the Anschluss between Germany and Austria and would not oppose it? Question 3. Did you also make a similar declaration to the same effect when subsequently visiting Hitler at Berchtesgaden?'. Halifax's answer follows, in full, 'All that I remember saying, either to Hitler or von Neurath, on the matter referred to in the above three questions is as follows:- I made it clear that it was not necessarily the policy of His Majesty's Government to stand for the status quo in Europe as it existed in November 1937. We were, however, directly concerned to see that the various questions which we had discussed - Anschluss Danzig, Sudeten Deutsch - should be handled by negotiation and not by force, and with the free assent and goodwill of those primarily concerned'. Signed by Halifax at the conclusion and countersigned by Hubert Norman Pullar (1914-1988) in his capacity as His Majesty's Consul at Washington DC, as a witness to Halifax's signature. With several official British Embassy and Foreign Office stamps. Neatly mounted and with several file holes to the upper edges of each page, otherwise VG Konstantin von Neurath (1873-1956) German diplomat who served as Foreign Minister of Germany 1932-38. Neurath was tried as a war criminal in Nuremberg and sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment for his compliance and actions in the Nazi regime, receiving an early release in 1954. Provenance: The present document originated from the archives of Dr. Hans Werner who was responsible for directing the printing of the Record of the Trial of Major War Criminals in 42 volumes and in three different languages (English, French & German) immediately following the Nuremberg Trials.