6
Dec. 45
COL.
STOREY: Very agreeable. It's all right with us
We were doing it for their benefit.
THE
PRESIDENT: Very well.
LT. COL.
GRIFFITH-JONES: When the Tribunal rose for the
adjournment, I had just read the letter from M.
Daladier to Hitler, of the 26th of August. On
the 27th of August Hitler replied to that
letter, and I think it unnecessary to read the
reply. The sense of it was very much the same as
that which he wrote to the British Prime
Minister in answer to the letter that he had
received earlier in the week.
Those
two letters are taken from the German White Book
which I put in evidence as GB-58, so perhaps the
Tribunal would treat both those letters as of
the same number. After that, nobody could say
that the German Government could be in any doubt
as to the position that was to be taken up by
both the British and French Governments in the
event of a German aggression against Poland.
But the pleas for peace did not end
there. On the 24th of August President Roosevelt
wrote to both Hitler and the President of the
Polish Republic. I quote only the first few
paragraphs of his letter:
"In
the message which I sent you on April
the 14th, I stated that it appeared to
be that the leaders of great nations had
it in their power to liberate their
peoples from the disaster that impended,
but that, unless the effort were
immediately made, with goodwill on all
sides, to find a peaceful and
constructive solution to existing
controversies, the crisis which the
world was confronting must end in
catastrophe. Today that catastrophe
appears to be very near at hand indeed.
"To the message which I
sent you last April I have received no
reply, but because my confident belief
that the cause of world peace —
which is the cause of humanity itself —
rises above all other considerations, I
am again addressing myself to you, with
the hope that the war which impends, and
the consequent disaster to all peoples,
may yet be averted.
"I
therefore urge with all earnestness —
and I am likewise urging the President
of the Republic of Poland — that
the Governments of Germany and Poland
agree by common accord to refrain from
any positive act of hostility for a
reasonable, stipulated period; and that
they agree, likewise by common accord,
to solve the controversies which have
arisen between them by one of the three
following methods:
"First,
by direct negotiation; second, by the
submission of these controversies to an
impartial arbitration in which they can
both have confidence; third, that they
agree to the solution of these
controversies through the procedure of
conciliation."