7 Dec.
45
Afternoon Session
MR. ROBERTS: May it please the Tribunal, when the Court
adjourned I had just come to the point at 4:30 a.m. on the 10th of May
1940 when the Germans invaded these three small countries without any
warning — a violation which, the Prosecution submits, it is clear
from the documents had been planned and decided upon months before.
My Lord, before I close this part of the case, may I refer to three
documents in conclusion. My Lord, the invasion having taken place at
4:30 in the morning in each of the three countries, the German
Ambassadors called upon representatives of the three governments some
hours later and handed in a document which was similar in each case and
which is described as a memorandum or an ultimatum. My Lord, an account
of what happened in Belgium is set out in our Document TC-58, which is
about five documents from the end of the bundle. It is headed, "Extract
from Belgium — The Official Account of What Happened 1939-1940,"
and I hand in an original copy, certified by the Belgian Government,
which is Exhibit GB-111.
My Lord, might I read short extracts? I read the third paragraph:
"From 4:30 a.m. information was
received which left no shadow of doubt: the hour had struck. Aircraft
were first reported in the east. At 5 o'clock came news of the bombing
of two Netherlands' airdromes, the violation of the Belgian frontier,
the landing of German soldiers at the Eben-Emael Fort, the bombing of
the Jemelle station."
My
Lord, then I think I can go to two paragraphs lower down:
"At 8:30 a.m. the German Ambassador
came to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When he entered the
Minister's room, he began to take a paper from his pocket. M. Spaak"
— that is the Belgian Minister — "stopped him: 'I beg
your pardon, Mr. Ambassador. I will speak first.' And in an indignant
voice, he read the Belgian Government's protest: 'Mr. Ambassador, the
German Army has just attacked our country. This is the second time in
25 years that Germany has committed a criminal aggression against a
neutral and loyal Belgium. What has just happened is perhaps even more
odious than the aggression of 1914. No ultimatum, no note, no protest
of any kind has ever been placed before the Belgian Government. It is
through the attack itself that Belgium has learned that Germany has
violated the undertakings given by her on October 13th 1937 and
renewed spontaneously at the beginning of the war. The act of
aggression committed by Germany for which there is no justification
whatever will deeply shock