23 Nov. 45
It is, of course, necessary that no one should have the advantage
over the other. For this reason, while I appreciate the good will of
the Prosecution to overcome the difficulties, I must refuse their
kind offer of a copy of the book, because I feel that in so doing I
would have an unfair advantage over the others. I am not in a
position during the proceedings to hand the evidentiary document to
my colleagues. I ask you therefore to appreciate the reasons why I
have refused this document. I am convinced that tomorrow we shall be
able to agree about the way in which we can receive evidence, and I
suggest that today we try to continue as we have done up to now.
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Alderman, can you inform the Tribunal how many
copies of these documents you will be able to furnish to the Tribunal
by Monday?
MR. ALDERMAN: I cannot at the moment. If Your Honor pleases: may
I make this suggestion in connection with it, which I think may be of
help to all concerned? I think many of us have underestimated the
contribution of this interpreting system to this Trial. We all see
how it has speeded the proceeding, but in so far as my presentation
of German documents is concerned, I shall let the documents speak. I
expect to read the pertinent parts of the documents into the system
so that they will go into the transcript of record. Counsel for the
German defendants will get their transcripts in German; our French
and Russian Allies will get their transcripts in their language, and
it seems to me that that is the most helpful way to overcome this
language barrier. I can recognize that for Dr. Dix to receive a
volume of documents which are English translations of German
documents might not seem very helpful to him. Further, as an aid, we
will have original German documents in court-one copy; and if the
Court will allow, I would ask that the original German document, from
which I shall read, would be passed to the German interpreter under
Colonel Dostert so that instead of undertaking to translate an
English translation back into perhaps a bad German, he will have the
original German document before him and in that way, the exact German
text will be delivered in the daily transcript to all of the counsel
for the defendants. I hope that may be a helpful suggestion.
THE PRESIDENT: That to some extent depends, does it not, upon how
much of the document you omit?
MR. ALDERMAN: That is quite true, Sir. As to these 10 documents
with which I propose to deal immediately, I expect to read into the
transcript practically the whole of the documents, because the whole
of them is significant, much more significant than any-