6
Dec. 45
their
last letter and they are informing the Polish
Government immediately; and lastly, they
understand that the German Government are
drawing up the proposals. That Document TC-72,
Number 89, will be GB-70. For the account of the
interview, we go to the next document in the
Tribunal's book, TC-72, Number 92, which becomes
GB-71. It is not a very long document. It is
perhaps worth reading in full:
"I
told Herr Ribbentrop this evening that
His Majesty's Government found it
difficult to advise the Polish
Government to accept the procedure
adumbrated in the German reply and
suggested that he should adopt the
normal contact, i.e. that when German
proposals were ready, to invite the
Polish Ambassador to call and to hand
him proposals for transmission to his
Government with a view to immediate
opening of negotiations. I added that if
this basis afforded prospect of
settlement, His Majesty's Government
could be counted upon to do their best
in Warsaw to temporize negotiations.
"Ribbentrop's reply was
to produce a lengthy document which he
read out in German, aloud, at top speed.
Imagining that he would eventually hand
it to me, I did not attempt to follow
too closely the 16 or more articles
which it contained. Though I cannot,
therefore, guarantee the accuracy, the
main points were . . . . " —
and I need not read out the main points.
I
go to Paragraph 3:
"When
I asked Ribbentrop for text of these
proposals in accordance with undertaking
in the German reply of yesterday, he
asserted that it was now too late as
Polish representative had not arrived in
Berlin by midnight.
"I
observed that to treat the matter in
this way meant that the request for
Polish representative to arrive in
Berlin on the 30th of August constituted
in fact an ultimatum, in spite of what
he and Herr Hitler had assured me
yesterday. This he denied, saying that
the idea of an ultimatum was a figment
of my imagination. Why then, I asked,
could he not adopt the normal procedure
and give me a copy of the proposals, and
ask the Polish Ambassador to call on him
just as Hitler had summoned me a few
days ago, and hand them to him for
communication to the Polish Government?
In the most violent terms Ribbentrop
said that he would never ask the
Ambassador to visit him. He hinted that
if the Polish Ambassador asked him for
interview it might be different. I said
that I would, naturally, inform my
Government so at once. Whereupon he
said, while those were his personal
views, he would