18 Dec. 45
copies of the drafts, as well as of the
letters which usually contain the arguments for the drafts, be added
to the folders submitted to the Council."
Von Stutterheim, who was an official of the Reich Chancellery, comments
on this procedure at Page 34 of a pamphlet entitled The Reich
Chancellery, which I now offer in evidence, Document 2231-PS ...
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, I don't understand what the importance
of the last document is.
COL. STOREY: The last document, if Your Honor pleases, is in further
evidence of the approval of laws and of the passing of laws by a
circulatory process.
THE PRESIDENT: We already have that in Dr. Lammers' affidavit.
COL. STOREY: It might be considered strictly cumulative, if that is
what Your Honor has in mind.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, if it is cumulative, we don't really want to hear
it.
COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir; I will ask then that it be stricken from the
record. I had really overlooked the fact that it was cumulative. Miss
Boyd and Commander Kaplan tell me that the Document Number 2231-PS is
probably also corroborative of the same process; and I will, therefore,
not offer it.
I have already stated that for a time the Cabinet consulted together
through actual meetings. The Council of Ministers did likewise, but
those members of the Cabinet who were not already members of the Council
also attended the meetings of the Ministerial Council. And when they did
not attend in person they were usually represented by State Secretaries
of the Ministries. We have here the minutes of six meetings of the
Council of Ministers of the 1, 4, 8, and 19 September 1939, also of the
16 October and 15 of November 1939. These original documents were found
in the files of the Reich Chancellery. I offer them in evidence as
Document 2852-PS, Exhibit USA-395. It will only be necessary to point,
for our purposes, to a few of the minutes. I call the attention of the
Tribunal to the meeting held on the 1st of September 1939, which is
probably the first meeting since the Council was created on the 30th
August 1939; and I read from that document — showing who was
present beginning at the top of the English translation:
"Present were the permanent members
of the Ministerial Council for Defense of the Reich: "The
Chairman, General Field Marshal Göring the Führer's Deputy,
Hess;" — for some unknown reason a line appears