DR. STAHMER: The date of the White Book, I see, we misunderstood each other; it is Berlin, 1941.
THE PRESIDENT: That is not a date, that is a year.
DR. STAHMER: It says, “Bolshevist Crimes against the Laws of War and Humanity. Documents compiled by the Foreign Office, First Volume, Berlin, 1941.” That is the name of the document; the date of its publication is not apparent from the book itself. The individual documents and preliminary proceedings are contained in this book, followed by a number of records which have individual dates.
THE PRESIDENT: Then there is nothing to show when that document was communicated, either to the Soviet Government or when it was communicated—if it was—to Geneva or to the Protecting Power.
DR. STAHMER: It was forwarded to Geneva. It was duly handed to the Red Cross in Geneva.
THE PRESIDENT: When?
DR. STAHMER: In 1941. I had proposed to obtain these books from Geneva and to bring in information from the Geneva Red Cross.
Mr. President, may I once more point out that it is an official document published by the Foreign Office. It is a series of reports compiled in an official publication.
THE PRESIDENT: That is not the real point that the Tribunal is considering. The question is, how can you justify in a trial of the major war criminals of Germany, evidence against Great Britain, or against the United States of America or against the U.S.S.R. or against France? If you are going to try the actions of all those four signatory powers, apart from other considerations, there would be no end to the Trial at all, and their conduct has no relevance to the guilt of the major war criminals of Germany, unless it can be justified by reference to the doctrine of reprisal, and this cannot be justified in that way. And therefore the Tribunal considers the document is irrelevant.
DR. STAHMER: I now turn to the subject of aerial warfare, evidence on Page 25 of my trial brief. Relevant to the question of guilt is the question whether the German Air Force started to attack open cities only after the British Air Force had carried out a great number of raids against nonmilitary targets.