6
Dec. 45
the
German Reich, and I would quote from Paragraph
(2) under "Special Orders":
"Legal
Basis. It should be anticipated that a
state of defense or a state of war, as
defined in the Reich defense law of the
4th of September 1938, will not be
declared. All measures and demands
necessary for carrying out a
mobilization are to be based on the laws
valid in peacetime."
My
Lord, that document is C-120. It becomes GB-41.
It contains some other later documents to which
I shall refer in chronological order.
The
statement of the Prime Minister in the House of
Commons, followed by the Anglo-Polish communiqué
of the 6th of April, was seized upon by the Nazi
Government to urge on, as it were, the crisis
which they were developing in Danzig between
themselves and Poland.
On the 28th of
April the German Government issued a memorandum
in which they alleged that the Anglo-Polish
Declaration was incompatible with the 1934
agreement between Poland and Germany, and that
as a result of entering into or by reason of
entering into that agreement, Poland had
unilaterally renounced the 1934 agreement.
I
would only quote three short passages, or four
short passages, from that document. It is TC-72,
Number 14. It becomes GB-42. Some of these
passages are worth quoting, if only to show the
complete dishonesty of the whole document on the
face of it:
"The
German Government have taken note of the
Polish-British declaration regarding the
progress and aims of the negotiations
recently conducted between Poland and
Great Britain. According to this
declaration there has been concluded
between the Polish Government and the
British Government a temporary
understanding, to be replaced shortly by
a permanent agreement, which will
provide for the giving of mutual
assistance by Poland and Great Britain
in the event of the independence of one
of the two states being directly or
indirectly threatened."
Thereafter,
the document sets out in the next three
paragraphs the history of German friendship
towards Poland. I quote from the last paragraph,
Paragraph 5, on that page:
"The
agreement which has now been concluded
by the Polish Government with the
British Government is in such obvious
contradiction to these solemn
declarations of a few months ago that
the German Government can take note only
with surprise and astonishment of such a
violent and fundamental reversal of
Polish policy.