English Translation

134 The Imperial Protector "47 3 Prague ben 4. August 1943. j No. 4 Fernschreib_ben ! - 8E An of o den Herr Reichsminister und %1 Goen Areiben Chief of the Reich Chancellery o 5337 B Feldquartier. HO 4 K Ouhnnai Subject: Concentration of the war economy. - RK 9.634 B - In the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, the decree of the leaders proposed by the imperial miners F u n k and S p e r shall also apply to § 7, paragraph 1, i.e. only the fact that a new delimitation of the responsibilities of the Reich ministries must be achieved uniformly for the entire territory of the Great and not German Reich. On the other hand, it is obviously intended to extend the Iof roger w, ai existing Befugnişse of the mentioned Reichsministers at the expense of my x comprehensive responsibility in the Protectorate. After all, Whink, boulhelanhn" could give the wording Ankåß to misunderstandings. I should therefore like to point out that, in particular, the tasks which the Reichswirtschaftsmi- nister had previously assumed for the rest of the Reich and which, after the decree obliekan, would in future be incumbent upon the Protectorate under my supervision, will be carried out by the 2 Xx a 7 autonomous Ministry of Economic Affairs and Labour, whereby, of course, basic economic policy decisions are taken in close consultation with the Reich's Minister for Economic Affairs. Only the economic relations of the Protectorate with foreign countries P is centrally controlled with my participation by the Reichswirtschaftsminister. A possible transfer of responsibilities to the Reichs- % ressorts would be regarded by large circles of the Czech population as a weakening of autonomy and be exploited accordingly by the enemy-propa- ganda, which would result in more decisive political disadvantages, especially under the present conditions. o A If you too expect such an interpretation of the decree, I would ask you to make a reservation in favour of my jurisdiction ("the + 24/8 18 20 T TO1 A C E