English Translation

38 Philipp F.Reomlsma Hamlurg, 20.Avgust 1940. Sadruf: 492341 in company H.F&Ph.FReomtsma Fernraf: 49 16 67 Herr Oberregierungsrat Dr. G i e s , Dienststelle des Reichsprotektors, Prag. Czernin-Palast. The Landrat des Landkreises Bielefeld, Mr Rütten, instructed the co-owner of my company, Mr Heinrich Neuerburg, about your wishes, which, as far as I have forgotten, go to whether my company would be willing to set up Cigarette sales in the cities of the Protectorate. According to the law in force today, the protectorate still has a monopoly on tobacco, on the basis of which the production and distribution of tobacco products is exclusively in the hands of the Czech tobacco industry. I am convinced, however, that, in the long term, in a single economic area, within the same customs frontiers, there will be no legal or technical solution for a monopolistic sector and for free industry, so that a similar solution is likely to be found for the Protectorate as for the Ostmark. In the eastern part of the country, the companies of the Austrian tobacco industry have been transferred to a public limited company owned by the Reichsfinanzministerium. This public limited liability company will distribute its manufactured products freely in competition with the enterprises of the old kingdom after the completion of the existing territorial protection. If what I consider almost inevitable comes to a regulation of a similar kind in the Protectorate, then the Czech director will remain unreserved to look for her sales also outside the Protectorates in Reichsdeutschland and to expand it there, as far as her efficiency is concerned. On the other hand, the rich German companies will also maintain the market of the protectorate and try to develop their sales in this area. That the rich Germans factories will achieve a certain proportion of the sales there seems to me to be safe with the high efficiency of the German tobacco industry. - 2 St. V1 4