Late in the afternoon of the 1 October 1943, the day on which Lieutenant Colonel SALMINGER had been attacked during the early morning hours, I was returning from Saloniki to Jannine. Already in the course of my drive home I learned of the attack on and the death of Lieutenant Colonel SALMINGER. On my arrival in Jannine I heard further particulars of the attack. General LANZ, to whom I reported back, expressed to me his indignation at this outrageous assassination of an officer of great merit and highly esteemed by him. In this connection he further told me that on this occasion he had issued an order of the day in which he had first expressed his regret evoked by such act of crime. As he further told me, the order of the day had the purpose to get at the offenders whom he assumed to be in the vicinity. The opinion that only the persons guilty of this attack and not somebody absolutely not concerned should be affected by the atonement, was completely in consistency with the whole inner attitude of General LANZ which I had come to know during my period of work, with the staff. That the foregoing statement is true, I hereby declare under oath.
The affidavit has been duly signed and certified by a notary.
In connection with this incident, I offer as a further exhibit the next document in the same document book III, which is document 71 on page 42 and I shall offer it under exhibit 58, Lanz No. 58. The affidavit was sworn by Fritz Doeppenschmitt, who has executed one other affidavit which I have submitted in another connection. The affiant is 54 years of ago and states here that during the war he was a clerical officer under General Lanz in the period from August, 1943 until August, 1944. Concerning the Corps order of the day of 1 October 1943, the witness Doeppenschmitt says the following, and I read from page 24:
In my capacity as clerical officer of General Lanz I was often together with him the whole day. General LANZ frequently without restraint discussed events occurring within the corps area with me. Thus I also recall the circumstances connected with the slaying of Lieutenant Colonel SALMINGER in the night between 30 September and 1 October 1943 by partisans as follows:
As the attack on Lieutenant Colonel SALMINGER and the slaying of him by the partisans were reported to General LANZ in his quarters in the morning of 1 October 1943, he was deeply shocked and in great excitement because of the line of action taken by the partisans. Lieutenant Colonel SALMINGER was an officer of outstanding merit, very highly esteemed by General LANZ because of his excellent achievements at the front in Russian and also very popular and highly respected by the men of his regiment because of his extraordinary welfare measures. In the course of the morning General LANZ talked to me about this incident, remarking that he was going to honor this excellent officer through an order of the day, and that he hoped the 1st Mountain Division would finally succeed in disarming the partisans responsible for the attack, who had shortly before shot to death maliciously also another officer Captain STITZINGER.
He was inclined to assume, General LANZ said, as far as I can still recall, that these guerillas were hiding somewhere in the mountainous region in the vicinity of the place of the attack.
Everybody knowing General LANZ realized fully that the retaliatory action envisaged in the corps order of the day was directed against those having executed the attack and not against any other irrelevant persons. This basic attitude of General LANZ not to impose punishment on anyone innocent was known not only to us, the people of his staff, but also among the soldiers in general.
The witness has duly sworn to his statement and I, as defense counsel, have duly certified the statements since the witness has been available to me personally.
Witness, I still have a few more questions concerning the incident Akmotopos. You issued the Corps order of the day, which you regarded as an epilogue for the Corps officer Salminger. As a result of this Corps order of the day, did the 1st Mountain Division do anything or take any action and if so, what kind of action?
A This Corps order of the day was sent to the 1st Mountain Division during the course of the afternoon, and as can be seen from the copy which is amongst the documents the order of the day was received there around 1900 hours in the evening. The receipt notice is on the copy which we have among the documents.
Q Possibly you would read to us the passage, which gives the receipt stamp, since this seems particularly important to me.
A I believe it is contained in all copies. It says here, "Handwritten 1-A," which is the one of the 1st Mountain Division, 1 October, 1900 hours, initials which means the initials of the 1-A. Below that it says, "Commander," who was at that time General von Stettner and then 1-A and Kr., and two other initials.
Q I see.
A When the order arrived at the division, the division as I stated yesterday, had already issued its own orders for the very easily comprehensible reason because the division had been informed of the incident Salminger before I had been informed of it. The division had ordered tho Captain Eisel with two companies and some artillery was to mop up the terrain where the band members were supposed by the division to be staying, because after all this concerned the divisional area. The two companies were to mop up this district. That was what the division had ordered in the meantime.
Q Witness, did the division -- the 1st Mountain Division -- inform you, General Lanz, about the measures which had been taken by the 1st Mountain Division, by that I mean those measures which you have described just now as being taken independantly long before your own corps order of the day had reached the division around 1900 hours; were you informed by the division about the measures?
A Yes, the division of course received my order and reported to me what measures they had taken.
Q On the basis of these reports by the 1st Mountain Division, did you assume that the purpose had been achieved, which you, General Lanz, in your Corps order of the day had indicated? I mean the purpose to eliminate the guilty band members and to avoid the recurrence of such attacks?
AAt least I did not interfere with the measures taken by the division, as I thought they were sufficient and adequate and I also thought they were alright from the tactical point of view.
Q Witness, when the ports about the action carried out by the 1st Mountain Division reached you, did you, as a result, order anything or did you not see any cause to take any measures?
A I no longer am in a position today to state with certainty in which manner the execution of the operation was reported to me. I no longer know whether the reports were submitted to me or whether my chief of staffer my 1-A, as was customary and usual, orally reported to me. As I say, I am no longer in a position to tell you that. I do recall however, since this incident of course touched me deeply, that I got in touch with the 1st Mountain Division and ordered to be informed by them about this carrying out of the measure. I also recall that at that time it struck me that the reports talked about the shooting of inhabitants, which after all was something unusual. Therefore, I contacted the division, I believe it was General von Stettner and I asked for information.
Q Did you then examine the facts as they were reported to you, or did you ask for an investigation; if so what were the results of such an investigation.
A That is another thing which unfortunately today I cannot answer with any certainty. I do not know any longer in which manner this investigation was carried out. I know, however, that i concerned myself with the matter. I also know that it was reported to me that the inhabitants, who had been reported shot, participated in the band fighting and were shot in the course of this fighting, killed or shot in action.
Q On the occasion of that report, was anything mentioned whether or not the village Akmotopos, which was destroyed during the mopping up action, had been evacuated prior to that by the civilian population or was anything mentioned about the circumstances?
A With the best will in the world, I am no longer in a position to tell you that today. I am only in a position to take these facts from the documents as they were read yesterday. Besides, Dr. Sauter, I have just stressed that it was a certain principle on the part of the bands that those parts of the population who did not in some shape or form participate in the fighting were evacuated from their locality before action took place. Those people just left and only those remained behind who in some shape or form participated in the band fighting.
A Can you recall whether the report, which was given to you when the matter was investigated, caused you to take any measures or did you maintain the point of view that according to the report everything was in order and that you did not have to take any measures?
A I remember that around that time, the beginning of October, 1943, I had on several occasions two or three discussions with General von Stettner. There were several incidents and facts, which did not suit me. During one of these discussions, I commented on this incident, which we are concerned with here. I gained the impression that the necessary strict fighting discipline, which had been demanded by me, was not available. If I remember correctly, it was for this reason that I told General von Stettner, in a serious manner, that in future counter-actions, if I should gain knowledge of similar ways of fighting, I would order a summary courts martial investigation.
Q May it please the Tribunal, in this context, I would like to offer an affidavit to the Tribunal. This is in document book 5, Lanz it is document 162 - 162 - on page 12 of document book 5. It is not possible for me to offer an affidavit of General von Stettner, because he was killed during the war. I instead am submitting a document of his adjutant as document 162.
THE PRESIDENT: Pardon me, Dr. Sauter, I do not believe that document book 5 has been furnished the Tribunal as yet.
DR. SAUTER: May it please the Tribunal, document book 5 has been translated into the English language. I have received a translation of document book 5, therefore, it must exist somewhere. I am prepared to give this one copy to the Tribunal and I can also have some more copies fetched from my office. Perhaps I could postpone the reading of this affidavit until my assistant has fetched the necessary copies and then I shall turn to reading this document. In the meantime, I could put a few other questions to General Lanz.
THE PRESIDENT: I believe that would be the better procedure, Dr. Sauter.
BY DR. SAUTER:
Q I shall therefore for the moment postpone the reading of this document 162. General Lanz, I remind you that your last words were before that during this discussion, you told General Stettner, the commander of the 1st Mountain Division, that in future events when you read from the reports that any doubt could exist about the correctness of the action, you would have the incidents examined by a courts martial and take proper measures; that is what you said?
A Yes, that is correct.
Q I would be interested to know whether such cases occurred, during a subsequent period. Were you yourself in doubt whether the troop subordinate to you acted correctly and were you starting a courts martial procedure? If this was the case, can you give us an example?
A These facts were realized shortly later, shortly after the discussion a mopping up operation had been started in the area of Lingiatis. This was a place which was not too far distant from Jeannina, along the highway to the Mezovon Pass. In that area there was a band group, which had been known for some time, in the mountain group Mizikol. This band group, which was known to us, blocked the road there, attacking localities and attacking our security troops, which were posted along the road. The 1st Mountain Division started an operation of a local nature against the band groups. The band stayed in the place Lingiatis. On this occasion a number of band members and civilians were shot and the place Lingiatis, as was mentioned in the report, was burned down.
That was not, because soon after that I convinced myself that only a few houses were burned down. This incident was also repeated to me. I had a very strict investigation made of this incident. I remember that I went the police officer of my staff there immediately when I received the report and he interrogated the inhabitants of the village who had remained behind. I further remember that I ordered that the civilian authorities of Joannina then concerned themselves with the incident. To put it briefly, I tried hard to get at the bottom of the incident.
Q May it please the Tribunal, I would like to submit an affidavit in connection with this statement by General Lanz. This affidavit is quite brief and it is contained in document book 3, document book Lanz 3, this is document No. 80 on page 42. I shall offer it as exhibit 60 - exhibit Lanz 60. This is an affidavit of an officer, who participated in the operation just mentioned. This officer makes the following statement concerning the operation. I read from page 42 and I quote:
At the end of September or beginning of October 1943 I and my former company of the Mountain Jaeger Battalion 54 fought a group of partisans about 3 km east of Joannina, near the Mezovon-Pass.
I was consistently fired at from the village and as I an the largest part of my company could see by civilians and women. During the attack it turned out, that they were bandits in civilian clothing and were the entire male and female population of the village. After the village was taken, I found on the floor of a destroyed house the enclosed Greek photograph, which showed a woman and a girl each with a rifle and cartridge case. Without a map, I can no longer remember the name of the village. (If it is possible, I would like the enclosed photographs returned to me after they have been used.)
And the signature, Hanz Zoeberlein.
The affidavit has been duly certified and sworn to by the Mayer. A photostat of the photograph has been added to the document, which has been submitted to the Tribunal. These photostats were produced in the photostatic division of this Court.
I would like to draw the attention of the Tribunal to the fact that a report refers to this operation, which the defendant Lanz has mentioned here and is a document of the prosecution. This is document NOKW-909, offered by the prosecution under exhibit 454. This is contained in document book 19 of the prosecution on page 138 of the German version and page 116 of the English version. This is a report dated 4 October 1943.
Q Witness, you said that you had this incident investigated in order to make sure that the 1st Mountain Division acted correctly during this operation. Whom did you commission to carry out this investigation?
Can you tell us that?
A I said yesterday that at that time, unfortunately, U had not my own court martial. I only received my own court martial around the beginning of January 1944. Therefore, I had to ask the Army Group again to have a court martial detailed to me and asked that for the moment, in order to clarify and investigate this incident, I should be allocated the court martial of the Administrative Subarea Headquarters in Joannina. This Administrative Subarea Headquarters in Joannina was not subordinate to me. It was subordinate to the Military Commander for Greece. This application was granted by the Army Group.
I remember very well that I had the court-martial councillor -- I believe his name was Juergens -- called to me and very clearly commissioned him to investigate the matter immediately, to report to me orally so that I could reserve further action.
Q Witness, where the investigation of this case is concerned which you mentioned just now, did you have the Greek civilian authorities participate in the investigation.
A I mentioned that just now.
Q And what in detail did the authorities establish concerning the participation of the civilians in the fighting and, above all, of those civilians who were shot?
AAs usual in such incidents, the facts were that one side maintained the people did not participate in the fighting and other people maintained that they did participate. It was not, to the best of my recollection, possible to establish matters quite clearly.
Q Witness, this incident took place in the area of the 1st Mountain Division. The 1st Mountain Division had its own court. Why didn't you, as would have been the normal course, commission the court martial of the 1st Division to investigate and judge the incident?
A This question is very justified and undoubtedly that would have been the normal course to take. Normally, I ought to have commissioned the division to clarify the incident. I did not do that, however, and I didn't do it on purpose because I wanted to keep this incident in my own hands. That was the reason.
Q Can you briefly tell us what the result of the whole action was? What was the result of the court martial procedure?
A The affair took quite some time, was delayed and caused much trouble. The result eventually was, because I didn't give in, that the persons who were guilty were punished with prison sentences.
DR. SAUTER: May it please the Tribunal, I would now like to read the affidavit which was in Document Book V which in the meantime has been brought here. I shall after that read another document. In Document Book V for Lanz, I would like to read Document 162 on page 12 which was given exhibit No. 59 by me just before.
I had mentioned before, your Honors, that I could not get an affidavit of the Commander of the 1st Mountain Division because he was killed during the war, to the best of my knowledge. Therefore, we asked his adjutant of that time to give us information about the incident and this adjutant is the affiant, Heinz Groth. He is a Bavarian judicial official and he states that during the period in question he was adjutant of the 1st Mountain Division during the period from April 1943 to Autumn 1944. He says the following and I quote:
"During the first half of October 1943 the Commanding General of the 22nd Mountain Army Corps, General Lanz, had repeated conferences with the Commander of the 1st Mountain Division, Major General v. Stettner. Besides tactical questions of the partisan fighting, the occasion for those conferences was primarily objections to the combat discipline of the troops. General Lanz, who always attached importance to waging war in a correct and decent manner, had already pointed out certain abuses of combat ethics during his troop inspections in the preceding weeks.
He held General v. Stettner, as the authorized divisional commander, responsible for this condition, in which connection apparently -- so far as I could gather from v. Stettner's remarks -- a few sharp words had been uttered.
"Just shortly after this, General von Stettner expressed himself in roughly the following words on the occasion of a troop report; Now if only no other commander has committed some arbitrary act and Lanz learns about it, then the devil is loose again."
"As far as I recall," the witness goes on to say, "this involved an operation against a partisan village near Joannina, which later led to a court martial prosecution at the express instigation of the Commanding General."
The affidavit is dated 29 October 1947 and it is signed by Heinz Groth. The affidavit has been sworn to duly and certified.
Q General Lanz, I would now like to have one document submitted to you which is on page 68 of Document Book XVII of the prosecution. This is page 93 of the English version. This is document NOKW-044 and Exhibit 418. It is a report about the destruction of a village in the area of Korea and, as it says, the shooting of all men capable of bearing arms.
The same report, General Lanz, is also contained in Document Book XX on page 76 which is page 107 of the English version, and this is Document NOKW-1402, Exhibit 476.
Would you please look at those two documents and then tell me whether or not you gave the order for this action?
A I did not give any orders for this action.
Q Who, according to you findings, had ordered this measure?
AAs I could establish from the documents here in Nurnberg, the man concerned was a Major Schreiber who was probably at the time Sector Commander of Korea.
Q Was the intention of the Sector Commander known to you before the action took place -- I mean the intention to attack the village and to destroy it?
A No, this intention was not known to me.
Q Can you give us any indications either from orders or reports which you have seen; how this operation came about?
A If I am to make a statement here, I have to rely on the information which I gathered from documents here. According to these, the village concerned is a band stronghold of Communists, north of the place Korea. From this area frequent attacks were made on the highway and mainly of the security installations on the outskirts of Korca.
I have to mention briefly the following circumstances. This small town Korca is in Albania. The district around Korca was during the whole period of my tenure in Greece particularly bothered by the bands.
Q General, this place Korca is no longer contained in that small map which we have submitted but it is considerably farther north of your area in Albania. That is why it is not on the map.
A Yes, that is why it is not on the map. It is about two inches north of the edge of the map. Korca was in Albania about 160 kilometers nor of Joannina. Around the district of Korca there were constantly active communistic bands carrying out their activities which, by the way, are there even today. From that district the constant invasions into the Greek area are started.
In one village a few kilometers away from Korea -- and this village is apparently concerned here -- these Communist bands were staying. If I am not very much mistaken. I passed that village at a later date. The place had been destroyed and it was situated near the right side of the road leading from Korca to the north and there were graves there of German soldiers as well as of partisans and these graves were quite close to the road. Without doubt, this was a Communist band village which, at the order of Major Schreiber, had been attacked in order to eliminate the constant attacks carried out from this village. Whether in the attack artillery, trench or mortar were used I don't know today and, of course, I cannot find out the facts any longer now. According to the reports which I have, the village was destroyed during the course of the combat action. Houses were burned down and destruction of places mostly consisted of burning down the place or part of the place because there were no explosions or anything of that type carried out.
The male defenders of the village, if I may put it that way, were shot during the fighting for this village. I have to assume that these male inhabitants, as it says here, capable of bearing arms, were the defenders of the village and that they were shot in the course of the fighting for the village.
To the best of my knowledge and according to my impression, this took place during a combat action for the village.
Q If you look at the report, witness, can you see, even from the report that this was a combat action, that a destruction was involved which was carried out during a combat action?
A To the best of my knowledge, it says in the report that the village was defended. It says here that the village was taken against resistance.
Q And you said, General Lanz, that this Communist band group, against which the action was carried out, was particularly active and carried out a number of attacks. What did you think was the main aim of the attacks of these partisans? Was it a town; was it a road; what was it?
AAll I can tell you is I didn't ask the band group.
Q But you had the report, General Lanz.
AAbove all, they wanted to attack the traffic along the highway because, as I described, a main highway passed this village from Korca to Fiorina and along that highway all our supplies were directed, at least until the Mezovon Highway could be used again and even at a later time the supplies were directed towards this road Korca-Florina and all the goods which were carried along this highway had to reach us eventually along that road. The partisans, therefore, were particularly interested in attacking this supply route, in disturbing it and finally preventing it from functioning.
Q Witness, you stressed just now that you had not ordered that action, that before the action was carried out you didn't know anything about it. Perhaps, you could tell us when and how did you after the facts had taken place learn something about them.
A I can only tell you for certain that I learned about them in Nurnberg. Whether I learned about them at the time I could only assume. Of course, it is not possible to remember every single report. That's just not humanly possible. It is possible, just possible, that I learned about it but I cannot say so with certainty.
Q And if you now look at the reports and if you recall the way in which you received them and in which you reacted to such reports during 1943 and 1944, can you tell us whether, according to these reports, you would have seen cause to carry out an investigation as in the other case or would you have been under the impression that, according to the report everything was well? How would you as an expert in military matters judge this report?
A I believe that would depend on the way in which I gained this knowledge. If my Chief of Staff had reported to me, which is quite possible, that in the area of Korca a band operation had taken place and that certain villages had been taken against band resistance, then I would see no cause whatsoever to interfere in these things. That would be nothing but purely a combat action which would offer me no cause to take any further action against it. I assume that that is how it was.
If I had learned details about the incident it would have been likely that I would have investigated the affair but I do not remember anything of that sort. Therefore, I assume that I received a tactical report about a combat action which gave me no cause whatsoever for interference. That is what I have to assume.
Q This brings me to another document, witness, with which you were charged by the prosecution. It can be found in Document Book XIII of the prosecution. It is Document 1552, Document Book XIII of the prosecution page 93, which is page 123 of the English text. The exhibit number was 333. I will have this document submitted to you. Will you please have a look at it and tell us what you know about this incident?
A To the best of my recollection, this incident, was an operation of the reconnaisance detachment of the 1st Mountain Division against a band ammunition depot which had become known to the German Security Forces stationed there.
This ammunition depot was attacked by us by way of a surprise attack. This resulted in a combat action with the bands who were there and who defended the ammunition depot and during this operation a number of bandits were killed. Whether they were 50, as reported, I no longer know. That seems a highly rounded figure to me.
Q Could you tell us whether you had ordered this operation as the Commander of the Mountain Corps?
A No, I only heard about the whole incident much later. I did not know anything about the operation before it took place.
Q And how did you later on gain knowledge of the incident?
A Probably through the channel of reports. I assume that the report after the operation had occurred was sent to the Corps Headquarters.
Q Did you as a result of this report see any cause to take any measures or did you at the time think that the action of the troops was a correct one?
A It is quite obvious that I did not see any cause to interfere and the way the operation was reported I could not see any cause.
DR. SAUTER: May it please the Tribunal, I am in this connection going to read a very brief affidavit consisting only of a few sentences. It is contained in Document Book III for General Lanz, Document 74, page 32, which I shall offer under Exhibit No. 61. This is an affidavit which has been duly sworn to and properly certified. The affiant is Matthias Starl. He has executed an affidavit which I have read yesterday. He was captain and chief ADC with the defendant Lanz from 14 November 1943 until 8 August 1944 and for some time he was Ia with the combat group Steyrer. He says the following and I quote:
Court No. V, Case No. VII.
"The area of Korca was heavily infested with bands since the arrival of the First Mountain Division about the beginning of July 1943 in that area. The Albanian and communist bands in that border area were especially active. Almost all the villages in the vicinity of Korca were known to be bases for the bandits. From there the bandits regularly attacked the supply traffic on the only highway which was then open, from Joannina via Korca to Florina. Even within the town of Korca there were several firefights with the bands, which attacked the town in broad daylight. The electric power station of the town of Korca, which was located about 10 km to the South of the town within the bandit infested area, had to be recaptured several times and had to be guarded constantly.
"During such a mopping-up operation, -
THE PRESIDENT: Pardon me, Dr. Sauter, Apparently you will not be able to complete the reading of this before out morning recess. Consequently, we will take our recess at this time.
(A recess was taken.)
Court No. V, Case No. VII.
THE MARSHAL: Persons in the Courtroom will please take their seats.
The Tribunal is again in session.
BY DR. SAUTER:
Your Honors, I then continue with the reading of the affidavit by the witness Starl. It is on page 32 in Lanz Document Book No. III, Document No. 74, Exhibit No. 61, I read from the last paragraph, where the affiant states:
"During such a mopping-up operation, the battle for an ammunition depot of the bands, as mentioned in the report of 26 September 1943, occurred.
"During a reconnaissance sortie, the bicycle troop of the 54th Reconnaissance Battalion learned by coincidence of the above mentioned ammunition depot from a civilian. The troop staged a surprise attack on the depot, which was being guarded by the bandits. In the course of the fighting, the ammunition depot was destroyed, several weapons, among them a heavy mortar, were captured, and 40 - 50 bandits, who resisted stubbornly, were killed in battle. I no longer recall the number of bandits show in the course of the battle. This action was afterwards reported by radio to Corps Headquarters at Joannina."
The affiant Matthias Starl who was at the time captain and first ADC with Lanz, has properly sworn to this affidavit and the signature is certified. The report of 26 September 1943 which the affiant mentions is, of course, the report NOKW-1552, Exhibit No. 333 which is to be found in Document Book XIII, page 39.
Now, witness, I come to the last individual count of the indictment dated the 12th of May, 1947, as far as this concerns you. It concerns the case of the Italian General Gandin. With regard to this case, in order to refresh your memory, I will show you the report concerned which is to be found in Document Book 19 of the prosecution, page 12 of the German and page 19 of the English.
This is the report NOKW1354, Exhibit No. 447. Have you got this report?
Now, please, would you state something about this incident?
A. This was at the conclusion of the fighting against the Italian division which was on the island of Korfu and Cathalonia after the Italian capitulation.
Q. And when was this?
A. This was the second half of September, 1943.
Q. And before this incident, had you had anything to do with the Italian capitulation?
A. Yes, my connection with the Italian capitulation was more or less accidental. This was while I was in Athens at the beginning of September 1943.
Q. That is before your arrival in the Epirus?
A. Yes, immediately before.
Q. And the negotiations at that time which you had to carry out in Athens -- did they have anything immediately to do with the case of Gandin on Korfu and Cathalonia?
A. Yes, they were immediately connected.
Q. And what did you have to do at the beginning of September in Athens with the Italian capitulation? Witness, I am asking you this question because at that time as you told us yesterday and the day before, you hadn't yet had anything to do. You hadn't been in action.
A. Well, it happened like this. On the 8th of September in the afternoon, I was in my billet in Athens and I heard by chance on the radio about the Italian capitulation. Thereupon, I asked the ADO who was with me to ask the army group whether I had anything to do with this matter at all, and I think it was the chief of staff at that time who told me that it was possible that I would perhaps be entrusted with the carrying out of the counter-measures as planned in an order called "Achsenmaechts."
Q. Witness, and why were you entrusted with this? At that time, you hadn't yet been in action.
A. I asked myself that question too at the time, because in itself I had nothing at all to do with these things, and also at that time I expressly asked that if possible I would not be bothered with this matter. Thereupon, I was told that shortly I would be told something else about it.