English Translation

48 copies. The State President of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Lány, on 6 November 1939. Your,Excellence, highly esteemed ler Reichsprotector! On your honorable letter of 25 October 1939, No. XVI, Gen. 38o/39, concerning the vow of fulfilment of duty against the Führer and Reichskanzeler, I have the honour - as I have already done orally - to inform myself that I am in principle prepared to comply with the Fuhrer's wish in this regard. I would, however, object to the duties of my responsible office, which I do not carry out on the basis of the constitutional electoral act and repeated other evidence of my people, but also thanks to the betrayal of the leader, if I were to conceal the following Erian Unions. It is clear to me that the vow is not a mere forma- litit sn, but rather that hereus liabilities are to arise, which emanate from the actual situation and which evade the clarities. However, precisely in this respect, the lace seems to me to be in need of clarification. The basic state act, which is based on the legal situation of the Protector of Bohemia and Malta, is to be seen in the decree of the Führer and Chancellor of the Reich of March 1, 1939. This decree was issued by zvei later decrees, namely those of June 23, 1939 /Reichsgesetzblatt I,8.1o39/ and those of September 1, 1939 / Reichsgesetzblache I,8. 1681/ supplement, by virtue of which the autonomy guaranteed by the decree of the 16th Mar 1939 was largely limited, but in addition, by the daily practice, as it is carried out in particular by the nie- er Reichsorgsne, it is always included in the autonomy of the protectorate countries.