8 Jan. 46
matter. The Tribunal will remember that on the 3rd of
April 1939, as shown in GB-4, TC-53(a), Germany had occupied the
Memelland. It would have appeared, as far as the Baltic States were
concerned, that the position was satisfactory; but if the Tribunal will
look at Document 2953-PS, which I put in as Exhibit GB-136, and Document
2952-PS, which I put in as GB-137, they will find that this defendant
acted in close concert with the conspirator Heydrich, who is dead, in
stirring up trouble in Lithuania with a group of pro-Nazi people called
the "Woldemaras supporters." Document 2953-PS shows that
Heydrich was passing to the Defendant Ribbentrop the request for
financial support for the ...
THE PRESIDENT: You are going to read 2953?
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: Yes, My Lord, that is the one I was going to
read. That is a letter from Heydrich to the Defendant Ribbentrop and it
says:
"Dear Party Comrade Von Ribbentrop:
"Enclosed please find a further report about the 'Woldemaras
supporters.' As already mentioned in the previous report the
'Woldemaras supporters' are still asking for help from the Reich. I
therefore ask you to examine the question of financial support brought
up again by the 'Woldemaras supporters' set forth on Page 4, Paragraph
2, of the enclosed report and to make a definite decision.
"The request of the 'Woldemaras supporters' for financial
support could, in my opinion, be granted. Deliveries of arms should
not, however, be made under any circumstances."
Then, 2952-PS, the next document, is a fuller report, and at the end of
that there is added in handwriting, "I support small regular
payments, e. g., 2,000 to 3,000 marks quarterly." It is signed "W,"
who I understand to be the Secretary of State.
I merely quoted that to show the extraordinary interference, even with
comparatively unimportant countries.
Then we pass to the aggression against Poland, and again the Tribunal
has had that fully dealt with by my friend Colonel Griffith-Jones; but
again it might be useful if I just separated the various periods so that
the Tribunal would have these in mind. The first was what one might call
the Munich period, up to the end of September 1938; and at that time no
language was too good for Poland. The Tribunal will remember the point.
The important documents showing that aspect of the case are GB-30,
which is Document 2357-PS, Hitler's Reichstag speech on the 20th of
February 1938, and then GB-31, Document TC-76, which is the secret
Foreign Office memorandum of the 26th of August 1938, and GB-27,
Document TC-73, Number 40. TC-73 is the Polish White