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[re…] member all the details. At the Economics and Armament
Office —
Q. Would you give us the full name of this office you
have been using in abbreviations?
A. It was the Economics and Armament
Office with the military commander, France. Apart from the man in charge of
this particular affair I also met the agent of the military commander with the
ALSTHOM firm I think his name was Arnold but I am not quite sure, but as far as
I remember his name was Arnold. And in a comparatively vague form we discussed
the further course of the proceedings. I think we also discussed the
evaluation; in this connection Mr. Arnold was in favor of a higher price, and
the German authorities and we ourselves were in favor of a price fixed on the
basis of the estimate.
Q. Did ALSTHOM demand any definite price at that
time?
A. Not as far as I remember.
Q. Only they didn’t
like the price that you were prepared to pay?
A. Well, I don’t
quite remember whether at that time an offer had already been made or was
discussed. At any rate the result of my visit was that we asked the High
Command of the Navy in Berlin whether they would agree if we started
negotiations with ALSTHOM on the basis of the evaluation by Mr. Simonis.
Q. Why did you ask the OKM about this?
A. Because the machine
had been requisitioned by the OKM. In view of the letter from ALSTHOM dated
June 1941 we had at the time inquired in Berlin whether we would be allowed to
take up negotiations with that firm and had received the reply that we could do
so but that we should keep Berlin informed.
Q. Was the OKM interested
in the price that you would possibly pay?
A. The OKM was interested for
two reasons: first of all on account of the compensation they would have to pay
for the requisition, and secondly because that machine was supposed to do
exclusively sheet-metal-bending operations for navy production, and the price
for carrying out these sheet-metal-bending operations was to be fixed on the
basis of the price that had been paid for the machine.
Q. In which way
would the price you paid for the machine have influenced the price for the
bending operations?
A. Mainly because of the depreciation rate and the
rate of interest that had to be paid.
Q. Well, what happened then?
A. In the meantime, a parallel course had been taken in Paris, as the
German authorities, and I think particularly the Economics and Armament Office,
had passed on the evaluation by Mr. Simonis |
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