Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression There remains the question, with which it will not be
necessary to detain the Tribunal for long, whether these
wars launched by Germany and her leaders in violation of
treaties, agreements or assurances, were also wars of
aggression. A war of aggression is one which is resorted to
in violation of the international obligation not to have
recourse to war or, in cases in which war is not totally
renounced, when it is resorted to in disregard of the duty
to utilize the procedure of pacific settlement which a State
has bound itself to observe. There was indeed, in the period
between the two World Wars, a divergence of view among
jurists
[Page 609]
and statesmen whether it was preferable to attempt in
advance a legal definition of aggression or to leave to the
States concerned and to the collective organs of the
international community freedom of appreciation of the facts
in any particular situation that might arise. Those holding
the latter view urged that a rigid definition might be
abused by an unscrupulous State to fit in with aggressive
design; they feared, and the British Government vas for a
time among those who thought so, that an automatic
definition of aggression might become "a trap for the
innocent and sign-post for the guilty". Others held that in
the interest of certainly and security a definition of
aggression, like a definition any crime in municipal law,
was proper and useful; they urged at the competent
international organs, political and judicial, could be
trusted to avoid any particular case a definition of
aggression which might lead to obstruction or to an
absurdity. In May 1933 the Committee on Security Questions
of the Disarmament Conference proposed a definition of
aggression on the following lines:
"The aggressor in an international conflict shall,
subject to the agreements in force between the parties
to the dispute, be considered to be that State which is
the first to commit any of the following actions:
"(1) declaration of war upon another state;
"(2) invasion by its armed forces, with or without a
declaration of war, of the territory of another State;
"(3) attack by its land, naval, or air forces, with or
without a declaration of war, on the territory,
vessels, or aircraft of another State;
"(4) naval blockade of the coasts or ports of another
State;
"(5) provision of support to armed bands formed in its
territory which have invaded the territory of another
State, or refusal, notwithstanding the request of the
invaded State, to take in its own territory all the
measures in its power to deprive those bands of all
assistance or protection."
The various treaties concluded in 1933 by the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics and other States followed closely
that definition. So did the Draft Convention submitted in
1933 by His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom to
the Disarmament Conference.
However, it is unprofitable to elaborate here the details of
the problem or of the definition of aggression. This
Tribunal will not allow itself to be deflected from its
purpose by attempts to ventilate in this Court what is an
academic and, in the circumstances, an utterly unreal
controversy as to what is a war of
[Page 610]
aggression. There is no definition of aggression, general or
particular, which does not cover abundantly and irresistibly
and in every material detail the premeditated onslaught by
Germany upon the territorial integrity and the political
independence of so many States.
This then being the law -- that the peoples of the world by
the Pact of Paris had finally outlawed war and made it
criminal let us turn to the facts and see how these
Defendants under their Leader and with their associates
destroyed the high hopes of mankind and sought to revert to
international anarchy. And first in general terms let this
be said, for it will be established beyond doubt by the
documents. From the moment Hitler became Chancellor in 1933,
with the Defendant Von Papen as Vice Chancellor, and with
the Defendant Von Neurath as his Foreign Minister, the whole
atmosphere of the world darkened. The hopes of the people
began to recede. Treaties seemed no longer matters of solemn
obligation, but were entered into with complete cynicism as
a means for deceiving other States of Germany's warlike
intentions. International Conferences were no longer to be
used as a means for securing pacific settlements but as
occasions for obtaining by blackmail demands which were
eventually to be enlarged by war. The World came to know the
War of Nerves, the diplomacy of the fait accompli, of
blackmail and bullying.
In October 1933 Hitler told his Cabinet that as the proposed
Disarmament Convention did not concede full equality to
Germany, "It would be necessary to torpedo the Disarmament
Conference. It was out of the question to negotiate: Germany
would leave the Conference and the League". And on October
21 1933 she did so, and by so doing struck a deadly blow at
the fabric of security which had been built up on the basis
of the League Covenant. From that time on the record of
their foreign policy became one of complete disregard of all
international obligations and certainly not least of those
solemnly concluded by themselves. As Hitler had expressly
avowed, "Agreements are kept only so long as they serve a
certain purpose" (789-PS). He might have added that often
the purpose was only to lull an intended victim into a false
sense of security. So patent, indeed, did this eventually
become that to be invited by the Defendant Ribbentrop to
enter into a non-aggression pact with Germany was almost a
sign that Germany intended to attack the state concerned.
Nor was it only the formal treaty which they used and
violated as circumstances made expedient. These Defendants
are charged, too, with breaches of the less formal assurance
which, in accordance with diplomatic usage Germany gave to
[Page 611]
neighboring states. To-day with the advance of science the
world been afforded means of communication and intercourse
hitherto unknown, and as Hitler himself expressly
recognized, International relations no longer depend upon
treaties alone. The methods of diplomacy change. The Leader
of one Nation can speak to the Government and peoples of
another. But though the methods change the principles of
good faith and honesty, established as the fundamentals of
civilized society, both in the national and the
International spheres, remain. It is a long time since it
was said that we are part, one of another. And if to-day
different states are more closely connected and thus form
part of a World Society more than ever before, so also more
than ever before is there that need of good faith between
them.
Let us see further how these Defendants, Ministers and High
Officers of the Nazi Government individually and
collectively comported themselves in these matters.
PART II
In the early hours of 1 September 1939 under manufactured
and, in any event, inadequate, pretexts, the armed Forces of
the German Reich invaded Poland along the whole length of
her frontiers and thus launched upon the world the war which
to bring down so many of the pillars of our civilization.
was a breach of the Hague Conventions (TC-2). It was a
breach of the Treaty of Versailles which had established the
Frontiers between Germany and Poland. And however much
Germany disliked that Treaty -- although Hitler had stated
that he would respect its territorial provisions -- she was
certainly not free to break it by unilateral action. It was
a breach of the Arbitration Treaty between Germany and
Poland concluded at Locarno on 16 October 1925 (TC-15). By
that Treaty, Germany and Poland expressly agreed to refer
any matters of dispute not capable of settlement by ordinary
diplomatic machinery to the decision of an Arbitral Tribunal
or of the Permanent Court of International Justice. But that
is not all. It was also a breach of a more recent and, in
view of the repeated emphasis laid on it by Hitler himself,
a more important engagement into which Nazi Germany had
entered. On 26 January 1934 the German and Polish
Governments had signed a ten year Pact of Nonaggression (TC-
21). It was, as the signatories stated, to introduce "a new
era in the political relations between Poland and Germany".
It was stated in the text of the Pact itself that "the
maintenance and guarantee of lasting Peace between the two
[Page 612]
countries is an essential prerequisite for the general peace
of Europe". The two Governments therefore agreed to base
their mutual relations on the principles laid down in the
Pact of Paris of 1928. They declared that
"In no circumstances *** will they proceed to the
application of force for the purpose of reaching a
decision in such disputes". (TC-21)
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Volume
I Chapter IX
Opening Address for the United Kingdom
(Part 6 of 17)