27 Nov. 45
lions and 866 millions, altogether
4,641 millions, out of which bills of exchange for armament amount to
2,374 million Reichsmark, that is of April 30, 1935. The Reichsbank
has invested the amount of marks under its jurisdiction, but
belonging to foreigners, in bank notes of armament.
"Our armaments are also financed partly with the credits of
our political opponents. Furthermore, 500 million Reichsmark were
used for financing of armaments which originated out of the federal
loans which were invested in the saving banks in the year 1935. In
the regular budget the following amounts were provided for the Armed
Forces:
"For the budget period 1933 to 1934--750 million Reichsmark;
for the budget period 1934 to 1935--1,100 million Reichsmark; and for
the budget period 1935 to 1936--2,500 million Reichsmark.
"The amount of deficits of the budget since 1928 increases
after the budget 1935 to 1936 to 5 to 6 billion Reichsmark. This
total deficit is already financed at the present time by short-term
credits of the money market. It therefore reduces in advance the
possibilities of utilization of the public market for the armament.
The Reichsfinanzminister"--Minister of Finance--"correctly
points out at the defense of the budget:
" 'As a permanent yearly deficit is an impossibility, as we
cannot figure with security increased tax revenues in an amount
balancing the deficit and any other previous debits, as on the other
hand a balanced budget is the only secure basis for the impending
great task of military policy,'"--I interpolate that evidently
the Defendant Schacht knew about the impending great military task to
be faced by Germany.--
" 'for all these reasons we have to put in motion a
fundamental and conscious budget policy, which solves the problem of
armament financing by organic and planned reduction of other
expenditures, not only from the point of receipt, but also from the
point of expenditure, that is, by saving.'
"How urgent this question is, can be deduced from the
following, that very many tasks have been undertaken by the State and
Party"--it isn't ever just the State; it is the State and the
Party-"and are now in process, all of which are not covered by
the budget, but from contributions and credits, which have to be
raised by industry in addition to the regular taxes. The existence of
various budgets side by side, which serve more or less public tasks,
is the greatest impediment for gaining a clear view of the
possibilities of financing the armaments. A large number of
ministries and