4
Dec. 45
the
grounds for the denunciation stated by Hitler in
his speech to the Reichstag were entirely
specious. However one reads its terms, it is
impossible to take the view that the
Anglo-Polish guarantee of mutual assistance
against aggression could render the
German-Polish Pact null and void, as Hitler
sought to suggest. If that had been the effect
of the Anglo-Polish assurances, then certainly
the pacts which had already been entered into by
Hitler himself with Italy and with Japan had
already invalidated the treaty with Poland.
Hitler might have spared his breath. The truth
is, of course, that the text of the
English-Polish communiqué, the text of
the assurances, contains nothing whatever to
support the contention that the German-Polish
Pact was in any way interfered with.
One
asks: Why then did Hitler make this trebly
invalid attempt to denounce his own pet
diplomatic child? Is there any other possible
answer but this:
That the agreement
having served its purpose, the grounds which he
chose for its denunciation were chosen merely in
an effort to provide Germany with some kind of
justification — at least for the German
people — for the aggression on which the
German leaders were intent.
And, of
course, Hitler sorely needed some kind of
justification, some apparently decent excuse,
since nothing had happened, and nothing seemed
likely to happen, from the Polish side, to
provide him with any kind of pretext for
invading Poland. So far he had made demands upon
his treaty partner which Poland, as a sovereign
state, had every right to refuse. If
dissatisfied with that refusal, Hitler was
bound, under the terms of the agreement itself,
"To seek a settlement" — I am
reading the words of the pact:
"To
seek a settlement through other peaceful
means, without . prejudice to the
possibility of applying those methods of
procedure, in case of necessity, which
are provided for such a case in the
other agreements between them that are
in force."
And
that presumably was a reference to the
German-Polish Arbitration Treaty, signed at
Locarno in 1925.
The very facts,
therefore, that as soon as the Nazi leaders
cannot get what they want but are not entitled
to from Poland by merely asking for it and that,
on their side, they made no further attempt to
settle the dispute ``by peaceful means" —
in accordance with the terms of the agreement
and of the Kellogg Pact, to which the agreement
pledged both parties — in themselves
constitute a strong presumption of aggressive
intentions against Hitler and his associates.
That presumption becomes a certainty when the
documents to which I am about to call the
attention of the Tribunal are studied.