Article 52 authorizes the occupying power to exact from the communes or inhabitants, for the needs of the army, requisitions in kind and services, with the express condition that they should be proportionate with the resources of the country and of such a nature that they should not imply for the population the obligation to take part in operations against their own country.
The same Article 52 stipulates that levies in kind shall be paid as far as possible in cash; otherwise they are to be confirmed by receipts and the sums due paid as soon as possible.
In other words, the Hague Convention allows the occupying army to requisition in occupied territories what is necessary for the maintenance of the troops but under two conditions, apart from contributions in kind: 1) That the requisitions and the services should be proportionate to the resources of the country, that is to say, that sufficient should be left over for the inhabitants, to enable them at least to live; 2) that the levies should be paid as soon as possible. This is not a question of fictitious payment made with funds extorted from occupied countries, but actual payment, which implies supplying real equivalents.
Article 53 of the Convention of The Hague which permits the occupying powers to seize everything which could be turned against them—and in particular, cash, funds, and securities of all kinds belonging to the state of the occupied country—does not authorize the occupying power to appropriate them.
According to information furnished by the Danish Government, when the Germans entered Denmark they declared that they would not demand anything from the country, but that supplies for the German Army would come from the Reich.
Nevertheless, instead of buying Danish crowns to permit their troops to spend money in Denmark, as early as 9 May 1940 they imposed the circulation of notes of the Reichskreditkasse, which is shown in Number 26 of the VOBIF, which I have already submitted under Document Number RF-93.
Upon the protestations of the National Danish Bank against the issuing of foreign paper money, the Germans withdrew these notes from circulation, but demanded the opening of an account at the National Bank, promising to draw upon it only for sums which were essential for the maintenance of their army in Denmark.
But the Germans did not lose time in violating their promises and in levying on their account, in spite of the Danish protests, sums infinitely superior to the needs of the army of occupation.
According to the information given by the Danish Government, the Germans levied, per month, an average of 43 million crowns in 1940; 37 million crowns in 1941; 39 million crowns in 1942; 83 million crowns in 1943; 157 million crowns in 1944; 187 million crowns in 1945. The total of these levies amounts, according to the Danish Government, to 4,830 million crowns.
I submit, as Document Number RF-115, the financial report of the Danish Government concerning this, a report to which I shall refer again in the course of this statement.