Hitler's Table Talk

54O
LEGAL TITLE TO TERRITORIES
in this corner. One thing is quite certain—in no circumstances
can we renounce our claim to the so-called Iron Gates.
The Danube is a river that runs deep into the heart of the
Continent, and for this reason must, in a new Europe fashioned
by us, be regarded as a German stream and be controlled by
Germany. The organisation of the whole East-West traffic in
this great territory depends on whether the Danube is or is not
to be a German waterway. Any canal construction would be
superfluous, indeed stupid, if we did not hold unrestricted control
of this main channel.
In the handling of the Danubian problems, our generation
must remember that not all the questions of rights which arise
were successfully answered by the peace treaties. Any responsible
statesman should, indeed must, leave his successor a whole
drawer full of somewhat nebulous claims, so that the latter can
be in a position, should the need arise, to conjure up these
"sacred" rights as the pretext for any conflict which may seem
necessary.
Himmler made the remark that "Old Fritz" based his Silesian campaign
upon hereditary rights which were by no means well established,
and that Louis XIV again and again had recourse to legal titles, no
matter whence they were obtained, in support of his policies. Hitler
continued:
The Head of a State can give no better proof of his wisdom
than the leaving of claims of this kind to his successor in respect
of every region in which it is humanly possible to foresee that
any national interests may at any possible time become involved.
If the monks of Athos, on the subject of whose morals
I have no desire to dilate, wish to name me as successor to the
Byzantine Empire, then their document must be most carefully
preserved !
I do not wish archives of this nature to be kept in the Foreign
Office, where they would probably be lost sight of and forgotten;
they should be kept in the Chancellery, as personal
papers of the Chancellor, and available at any time for the
study of his successors.
These reflections of mine are inspired by my own experience
with the difficult piece of history to which I have had to put