M. MOUNIER: I understand, Mr. President, and I shall get in touch with my British colleague as requested by the Tribunal.
THE PRESIDENT: Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe, do you wish to say anything?
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE (Deputy Chief Prosecutor for the United Kingdom): No, My Lord, we are ready to go on with the presentation against the Defendant Hess, and we think that it should take two and a half hours, approximately.
[The Tribunal adjourned until 7 February 1946 at 1000 hours.]
FIFTY-THIRD DAY
Thursday, 7 February 1946
Morning Session
M. MOUNIER: Mr. President, Your Honors, before the adjournment yesterday I had begun to explain to you very briefly the relation which, in our opinion, exists between two of the main themes in the Indictment, to wit, the accusation of conspiracy brought against certain groups designated in the Indictment and which I enumerated yesterday, on the one hand; and, on the other hand, the various acts which enable us to form our conclusions as to the criminal character of the activity of the National Socialist conspirators.
I told you, to begin with, that what appeared to us to be at the bottom of this criminal activity was the profound mystery, the absolute mystery surrounding their meetings, both official and unofficial, a fact which is corroborated by statements made by certain of the defendants in their interrogatories from which it frequently emerged that some of the orders emanating from high places were to be suppressed and annulled, so as to leave no trace.
We consider, likewise, that proof of the fraudulent collaboration which existed among the conspirators is afforded by the criminal character of the decisions made at these secret councils, which aimed at the conquest of neighboring countries through wars of aggression.
Finally, proof of this fraudulent collaboration is afforded, in our opinion, by the way in which these criminal plans were carried out by the employment of all sorts of means condemned both by international morality and by the letter of the law; for example, in international and diplomatic spheres the most cynical plots, the use in foreign countries of what is known as the “Fifth Column,” financial camouflage, the exertion of improper pressure backed by demonstrations of violence, and finally—when these methods no longer proved effective—the waging of a war of aggression.