"The Foreign Secretary saw the German Foreign Minister on March 10," Mr. Chamberlain said, "and addressed to him a grave warning on the Austrian situation and upon what appeared to be the policy of the German Government regarding it.
"In particular, Lord Halifax told Herr von Ribbentrop that the British Government attached the greatest importance to all the measures being taken to ensure that the Austrian plebiscite was carried out without interference or intimidation, "Late on Friday, our Ambassador in Berlin registered a protest in strong terms with the German Government against such use of coercion, backed by force, against an independent state in order to create a situation incompatible with its national independence."
Matters had come to a head on that day, the Prime "Minister continued, when Dr. Arthur Seyss-In-quart (then Nazi Home Minister and newly appointed Austrian Chancellor) and his colleagues presented an ultimatum to Dr. von Schuschnigg demanding the abandonment of the plebiscite, They threatened that if this were refused the Nazis would abstain from voting and could not be restrained from causing serious disturbances during the poll. They required an answer before 1 o'clock that afternoon.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.