SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: So that at this time you had had the report to the Führer on 14 May; you had then had the Laconia incident, and during that incident you had had the pressure from the Führer. Now, was it not because of this...
DÖNITZ: I beg your pardon, but...
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: Allow me to ask my question.
DÖNITZ: I think there is an error that has crept in here.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: Very well, I will correct it. You had had the report to the Führer on 14 May. You have told me that. There was then the Laconia...
DÖNITZ: That has nothing to do with the Führer’s order in the case of the Laconia. In the case of the Laconia the Führer had given orders, and quite rightly, that no boats should be endangered by the rescue. That is something quite different from the subject of 14 May.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: I am trying to assemble for the moment what matters you had to deal with. You had had the 14th of May, the Laconia incident, and then an order to stop, coming through from the Führer.
DÖNITZ: No, in the case of the Laconia incident I never thought at all of the order or of the discussion of 14 May with the Führer, and I could not, because that was an entirely different subject. This is quite another matter, here it was purely a matter of rescue. There is no connection whatsoever between the two.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: We will see about that. Turn to Page 36 in the British document book, or Pages 71 to 75 in the German document book.
Now, you have told us that what mainly concerned you was the safety of your own boats and of your own personnel.