5
Dec. 45
Afternoon
Session
SIR
DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: As the Tribunal adjourned I
had come to the fifth treaty, the Treaty of
Peace between the Allied and Associated Powers
and Germany, signed at Versailles the 28th of
June 1919. 1 again ask the Tribunal to take
judicial cognizance of this treaty, and I again
hand in for convenience Exhibit GB-3, which is a
copy of the treaty, including the British
documents TC-5 to TC-10 inclusive. The reference
in Appendix C is to Charge 5.
Before I
deal with the relevant portions, may I explain
very briefly the layout of the treaty.
Part
I contains the Covenant of the League of
Nations, and Part II sets the boundaries of
Germany in Europe. These boundaries are
described in detail but Part II makes no
provision for guaranteeing these boundaries.
Part III, Articles 31 to 117, with
which the Tribunal is concerned, contains the
political clauses for Europe. In it, Germany
guarantees certain territorial boundaries in
Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, Czechoslovakia,
France, Poland, Memel, Danzig, and so forth.
It might be convenient for the
Tribunal to note, at the moment, the
interweaving of this treaty with the next, which
is the Treaty for the Restoration of Friendly
Relations between the United States and Germany.
Parts I, II, and III of the Versailles
Treaty are not included in the United States
treaty. Parts IV, V, VI, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII,
XIV, and XV are all repeated verbatim in the
United States treaty from the Treaty of
Versailles.
The Tribunal is concerned
with Part V — the military, naval, and air
clauses. Parts VII and XIII are not included in
the United States treaty.
I don't
think there is any reason to explain what the
parts are, but if the Tribunal wishes to know
about any specific part, I shall be very happy
to explain it.
The first part that the
Tribunal is concerned with is that contained in
the British Document TC-5, and consists of
Articles 42 to 44 dealing with the Rhineland.
These are very short, and as they are repeated
in the Locarno Treaty, perhaps I had better read
them once, just so that the Tribunal will have
them in mind.
"Article
42: Germany is forbidden to maintain or
construct any fortifications either on
the left bank of the Rhine or on the
right bank to the west of a line drawn
50 kilometers to the east of the Rhine.
"Article 43: In the area
defined above, the maintenance and the
assembly of armed forces, either
permanently or temporarily, and military
maneuvers of any kind, as well as the