6
Dec. 45
a
friendly understanding with the
Government of the German Reich, the
Polish Government proposes the
replacement of the League of Nations
guarantee and its prerogatives by a
bilateral Polish-German agreement. This
agreement should guarantee the existence
of the Free City of Danzig so as to
assure freedom of national and cultural
life to its German majority, and also
should guarantee all Polish rights.
Notwithstanding the complications
involved in such a system, the Polish
Government must state that any other
solution, and in particular any attempt
to incorporate the Free City into the
Reich, must inevitably lead to a
conflict. This would not only take the
form of local difficulties, but also
would suspend all possibility of
Polish-German understanding in all its
aspects."
And
then finally in Paragraph 8:
"In
face of the weight and cogency of these
questions, I am ready to have final
conversations personally with the
governing circles of the Reich. I deem
it necessary, however, that you should
first present the principles to which we
adhere, so that my eventual contact
should not end in a breakdown, which
would be dangerous for the future."
The
first stage in those negotiations had been
entirely successful from the German point of
view. They had put forward a proposal, the
return of the City of Danzig to the Reich, which
they might well have known would have been
unacceptable. It was unacceptable, and the
Polish Government had warned the Nazi Government
that it would be. They had offered to enter into
negotiations, but they had not agreed, which is
exactly what the German Government had hoped.
They had not agreed to the return of Danzig to
the Reich. The first stage in producing the
crisis had been accomplished.
Shortly
afterward, within a week or so of that taking
place, after the Polish Government had offered
to enter into discussions with the German
Government, we find another top-secret order,
issued by the Supreme Command of the Armed
Forces, signed by the Defendant Keitel. It goes
to the OKH, OKM, and OKW and it is headed, "The
First Supplement to the Instruction Dated the
21st of October 1938":
"The
Führer has ordered: Apart from the
three contingencies mentioned in the
instructions of that date of 21 October
1938, preparations are also to be made
to enable the Free State of Danzig to be
occupied by German troops by surprise .
. . .
"The preparations
will be made on the following basis:
Condition is a quasi-revolutionary
occupation of Danzig, exploiting a
politically favorable situation, not a
war against Poland."
We
remember, of course, that at that moment the
remainder of Czechoslovakia had not been seized
and therefore they were not