6
Dec. 45
LT.
COL. GRIFFITH-JONES: I beg your pardon, yes, on
the 5th of May.
It is unnecessary to
read more than two short paragraphs from that
reply. I can summarize the document in a word.
It sets out the objects of the 1934 agreement:
to renounce the use of force and to carry on
friendly relationship between the two countries,
to solve difficulties by arbitration and other
friendly means. The Polish Government appreciate
that there are difficulties about Danzig and
have long been ready to carry out discussions.
They set out again their part in the recent
discussions, and I turn to the second page of
the document, the one but last paragraph or,
perhaps, I should go back a little to the top of
that page, the first half of that page. The
Polish Government allege that they wrote, as
indeed they did, to the German Government on the
26th of March giving their point of view, that
they then proposed joint guarantees by the
Polish and German Governments of the City of
Danzig based on the principles of freedom for
the local population in internal affairs. They
said they were prepared to examine the
possibilities of a motor road and railway
facilities and that they received no reply to
those proposals:
"It
is clear that negotiations in which one
state formulates demands and the other
is to be obliged to accept those demands
unaltered, are not negotiations in the
spirit of the declaration of 1934 and
are incompatible with the vital
interests and dignity of Poland."
Which,
of course, in a word summarizes the whole
position of the Polish point of view. And
thereafter they reject the German accusation
that the Anglo-Polish agreement is incompatible
with the 1934 German-Polish agreement. They
state that Germany herself has entered into
similar agreements with other nations and
lastly, on the next page, they too say that they
are still willing to entertain a new pact with
Germany, should Germany wish to do so.
If
the Tribunal would turn back to the Document
C-120, to the first two letters, to which I
referred only a few minutes ago, it becoming
GB-41. On the bottom of the page there is a
figure 614, on the first page of that exhibit, "Directives
from Hitler and Keitel Preparing for War and the
Invasion of Poland". I would refer to Page
6 of that particular exhibit. The page number
will be found at the bottom of the page, in the
center. It is a letter from the Supreme
Commander of the Armed Forces, signed by Hitler
and dated the 10th of May. It goes to OKW, OKH,
OKM, various branches of the OKW and with it
apparently were enclosed "Instructions for
the Economic War and the Protection of Our Own
Economy." I only mention it now to show
better that throughout this time preparations
for the immediate aggression were continuing.
That document will still be part of the same
exhibit.