SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: Yes. It is very short. I will indicate it, if Dr. Kranzbühler will allow me.
The two questions were: “Is it known to you that in September 1942 German submarines saved shipwrecked people after torpedoing the British steamer Laconia and while doing so were bombed by an Allied plane?” Number 8, “Do you know whether this incident was the reason for the commander of the U-boat fleets issuing an order by which assistance at the risk of endangering one’s own boat was prohibited, and for the declaration that this was not at variance with the laws of sea warfare?”
The objections—I will read them out: “Question 7. Objection is entered on the ground that this question is unnecessary and the facts are admitted.”
“Question 8: Objection entered. It is not seen how the witness could possibly know the reason for the orders from the Defendant Dönitz.”
These are the objections that were made.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
FLOTTENRICHTER KRANZBÜHLER: May I say something to this? I think that the officers mentioned can testify as to the reasons for the orders received by them from the commander of the U-boat fleet, because the events which led to the order of September 1942 were generally known among the U-boat commanders, and U-boat commanders in the various theaters of war may possibly have picked up the wireless messages sent to the U-boats concerned with the Laconia incident. That is all.
I now turn to the application regarding the interrogatory to be put to Admiral Nimitz. The stand taken by the Prosecution differs entirely from the conception on which my application is based. I in no way wish to prove or even to maintain that the American Admiralty in its U-boat warfare against Japan broke international law. On the contrary, I am of the opinion that it acted strictly in accordance with international law. In the United States’ sea war against Japan, the same question arises as in Germany’s sea war against England, namely the scope and interpretation of the London Submarine Agreement of 1930. The United States and Japan were also signatories to this agreement.
My point is that, because of the order to merchant vessels to offer resistance, the London Agreement is no longer applicable to such merchantmen; further, that it was not applicable in declared operational zones in which a general warning had been given to all vessels, thus making an individual warning unnecessary before the attack.
Through the interrogatory to Admiral Nimitz I want to establish that the American Admiralty in practice interpreted the London Agreement in exactly the same way as the German Admiralty, and thus prove that the German conduct of sea warfare was perfectly legal. The same applies to the treatment of shipwrecked persons in waters where the U-boat would endanger herself by rescue measures.