Now, we have heard the manner in which they did that. They then say that:
“Instead of a statement regarding the arrival of authorized Polish personage, the first answer the Government of the Reich received of their readiness for an understanding was the news of the Polish mobilization; and only toward 12 o’clock on the night of the 30th of August 1939, did they receive a somewhat general assurance of British readiness to help towards the commencement of negotiations.
“Although the fact that the Polish negotiator expected by the Government of the Reich did not arrive removed the necessary conditions for informing His Majesty’s Government of the views of the German Government as regards a possible basis for negotiation, since His Majesty’s Government themselves had pleaded for direct negotiations between Germany and Poland, the German Minister for Foreign Affairs Ribbentrop gave the British Ambassador, on the occasion of the presentation of the last British note, precise information as to the text of the German proposals which will be regarded as a basis of negotiation in the event of the arrival of the Polish Plenipotentiary.”
And, thereafter, they go on to set out the story, or rather their version of the story, of the negotiations over the last few days.
I pass to the next but one document in the Tribunal’s book, TC-54, which becomes GB-73. On the 1st of September when his armies were already crossing the frontier and the whole of the frontier, he issued this proclamation to his Armed Forces:
“The Polish Government, unwilling to establish good neighborly relations as aimed at by me, want to force the issue by way of arms.
“The Germans in Poland are being persecuted with bloody terror and driven from their homes. Several acts of frontier violation, which cannot be tolerated by a great power, show that Poland is no longer prepared to respect the Reich’s frontiers. To put an end to these mad acts, I can see no other way but from now onwards to meet force with force.