4
Dec. 45
Denmark
made on the 31st of May 1939. And it was a
breach of the most explicit assurances which had
been given. After his annexation of
Czechoslovakia had shaken the confidence of the
world, Hitler attempted to reassure the
Scandinavian states. On the 28th of April 1939
he affirmed that he had never made any request
to any of them which was incompatible with their
sovereignty and independence. On the 31st of May
1939 he signed a non-aggression pact with
Denmark.
On the 2d of September 1939,
the day after he had invaded Poland and occupied
Danzig, he again expressed his determination, so
he said, to observe the inviolability and
integrity of Norway in an aide-mémoire
which was handed to the Norwegian Foreign
Minister by the German Minister in Oslo on that
day.
A month later, in a public speech
on the 6th of October 1939, he said:
"Germany
has never had any conflicts of interest
or even points of controversy with the
northern states, neither has she any
today. Sweden and Norway have both been
offered non-aggression pacts by Germany,
and have both refused them, solely
because they do not feel themselves
threatened in any way."
When
the invasion of Denmark and Norway was already
begun in the early morning of 9 April 1940, a
German memorandum was handed to the governments
of those countries attempting to justify the
German action. Various allegations against the
governments of the invaded countries were made.
It was said that Norway had been guilty of
breaches of neutrality. It was said that she had
allowed and tolerated the use of her territorial
waters by Great Britain. It was said that
Britain and France were themselves making plans
to invade and occupy Norway and that the
Government of Norway was prepared to acquiesce
in such an event.
I do not propose to
argue the question whether or not these
allegations were true or false. That question is
irrelevant to the issues before this Court. Even
if the allegations were true — and they
were patently false — they would afford no
conceivable justification for the action of
invading without warning, without declaration of
war, without any attempt at mediation or
conciliation.
Aggressive war is none
the less aggressive war because the state which
wages it believes that other states might, in
the future, take similar action. The rape of a
nation is not justified because it is thought
she may be raped by another. Nor even in
self-defense are warlike measures justified
except after all means of mediation have been
tried and failed and force is actually being
exercised against the state concerned.