6
Dec. 45
to
Denmark, Norway, Belgium, and the Netherlands on
the 28th of April 1939. That, of course, was
after the annexation of Czechoslovakia had
shaken the confidence of the world; and this was
presumably an attempt, now submitted by the
Prosecution to be a dishonest attempt, to try to
reassure the Scandinavian States. The assurance
is in a speech by Hitler and reads:
".
. . I have given binding declarations to
a large number of states. None of these
states can complain that even a trace of
a demand contrary thereto has ever been
made to them by Germany. None of the
Scandinavian statesmen, for example, can
contend that a request has ever been
put to them by the German Government or
by German public opinion which was
incompatible with the sovereignty and
integrity of their state.
"I
was pleased that a number of European
states availed themselves of these
declarations by the German Government to
express and emphasize their desire too
for absolute neutrality. This applies to
the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland,
Denmark, etcetera."
A
further assurance was given by the Nazi
Government on the of September 1939 which, as
the Tribunal will recollect, was the day after
the Nazi invasion of Poland. The Court will
observe the next document in British Document
Book 3 is the Document TC-31, which will be
Exhibit GB-79. That is an aide-memoire that
was handed to the Norwegian Foreign Minister by
the German Minister in Oslo on the 2d of
September 1939. It reads:
"The
German Reich Government are determined,
in view of the friendly relations which
exist between Norway and Germany, under
no circumstances to prejudice the
inviolability and integrity of Norway
and to respect the territory of the
Norwegian State. In making this
declaration, the Reich Government
naturally expect on their side that
Norway will observe an unimpeachable
neutrality towards the Reich and will
not tolerate any breaches of Norwegian
neutrality by any third party. Should
the attitude of the Royal Norwegian
Government differ from this so that any
such breach of neutrality by a third
party occurs, the Reich Government would
then obviously be compelled to safeguard
the interest of the Reich in such a way
as the resulting situation might
dictate."
There
follows, finally, the further German assurance
to Norway, which appears as the next document in
the book, TC-32, which will be Exhibit GB-80.
That is a speech by Hitler on the 6th of October
1939; and if the Court will observe Paragraph 2
at the top of the page, the extract from the
speech reads as follows: