DR. STAHMER: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, Dr. Stahmer, the Tribunal approves of the course which you suggest.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: May I, in the interest of time, make a suggestion, Your Honor, that these documents which Dr. Stahmer proposes to offer, I understand, have been translated into all four languages, so that the reason for reading them in open court does not sustain. I cannot speak for my colleagues since I have not consulted them, but so far as the United States is concerned, we will not raise a question of relevancy; we spend no time arguing points of relevancy. I suggest that the reading of a whole document book seems a waste of time of the Trial Court since the documents are available in all four languages.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Stahmer, before we consider that course which has been suggested by Mr. Justice Jackson, we should like to hear whether any of the other Chief Prosecutors have anything to add to it.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: I respectfully submit that it is an excellent suggestion and I want to make it clear to the Defense Counsel that I feel that it will, on the one side, avoid arguments of relevancy on comparatively small points and, on the other side, the Defense Counsel will be able to use any of the excerpts in their final speeches with more effect and probably with more help to the Tribunal than merely by reading them at this stage. I respectfully support it and consider that it will improve the general condition.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Sir David. We will hear you in a moment, Dr. Stahmer, but I do not want you to go away; I want you to be able to hear. I want to hear General Rudenko too.
GEN. RUDENKO: I am fully in agreement with the suggestion of Mr. Justice Jackson and that of Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe and I also consider that the Tribunal accept these documents which have been translated in four languages. This does not exclude the premise, namely that the Defense has no right to submit documents that have nothing to do with the present case. In particular I have a definite objection against submitting as exhibits the extracts from documents of the so-called White Book which are being submitted by Dr. Stahmer in the document book. These extracts have nothing to do with the present case and they should not be submitted.
THE PRESIDENT: Does the French Chief Prosecutor wish to add anything to what has been said?
M. CHAMPETIER DE RIBES: The French Prosecution has laid before the Tribunal a note requesting rejection of Document Number Göring-26. It concerns indeed an extract from a note from the German Government to the French Government regarding the treatment of German prisoners of war in France. This extract refers to a secret order from the headquarters of the general commanding the 9th French Army. This extract says that the general commanding the 9th French Army published an order; this order was not given to us. We are dealing only with an assertion of the German Government, which is the government of the defendant. The extract which is offered to us has therefore no relevancy and we ask the Tribunal to reject it.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal, at the moment, is not considering the question of relevancy of particular documents. They are considering only the general question of method as to whether all these documents have to be read out to the Tribunal or whether they can be laid before the Tribunal for the Tribunal’s consideration. If they have got to be read out in full it will take a very considerable time, and therefore Mr. Justice Jackson has suggested that instead of all these documents being read out in full, which will take a very long time, as they have been translated, the reason for that no longer exists as it did exist in the case of the documents put in by the Prosecution which had not been translated. But that does not mean that the question of relevancy of individual documents or particular passages in the documents is decided by the document books being presented for the consideration of the Tribunal. Such questions as that may, in important cases, have to be considered after argument, but as a general rule and for the purpose of avoiding delay, the suggestion of Mr. Justice Jackson appears to have a very great deal to recommend it.