6 Dec. 45

"When the negotiations of the Polish Foreign Minister in London brought about the Anglo-Polish Treaty, at the end of March or the beginning of April 1939, was it not fairly obvious that a peaceful solution was impossible?" — answer — "Yes, it seemed impossible after my conviction" — I think that must be a bad translation — "according to my conviction."

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

LT. COL. GRIFFITH-JONES: [Continuing.] " . . . but not according to the convictions of the Führer. When it was mentioned to the Führer 'that England had given her guarantee to Poland, he said that England was also guaranteeing Romania, but then when the Russians took Bessarabia, nothing happened; and this made a big impression on him. I made a mistake here. At this time Poland only had the promise of a guarantee. the guarantee itself was only given shortly before the beginning of the war. On the day when England gave her official guarantee to Poland, the Führer called me on the telephone and told me that he had stopped the planned invasion of Poland. I asked him then whether this was just temporary, or for good. He said, 'No, I will have to see whether we can eliminate British intervention.' So, then I asked him, 'Do you think that it will be any different within 4 or 5 days? At this same time — I do not know whether you know about that, Colonel — I was in communication with Lord Halifax by a special courier, outside the regular diplomatic channels, to do everything to stop war with England. After the guarantee, I held an English declaration of war inevitable. I already told him in the spring of 1939, after occupying Czechoslovakia, I told him that from now on, if he tried to solve the Polish question, he would have to count on the enmity of England — 1939, that is, after the Protectorate.

"Question: 'Is it not a fact that preparations for the campaign against Poland were originally supposed to have been completed by the end of August 1939?

"Answer: 'Yes.'

"Question: 'And that the final issuance of the order for the campaign against Poland came sometime between the 15th and 20th of August 1939, after the signing of the treaty with Soviet Russia?'" — The dates obviously are wrong there.

"Answer: 'Yes, that is true.'

"Question: 'Is it not also a fact that the start of the campaign was ordered for the 25th of August but on the 24th of August in the afternoon it was postponed until