THE PRESIDENT: If you confine yourself to statements of fact as to what the Defendant Hess did, there will be no objection to it at all. But as I said, if you make arguments that the Treaty of Versailles is illegal or unjust, the Tribunal will not hear you.
DR. SEIDL: I shall continue, and I ask you, Mr. President, since I do not know the exact limits which I may not transgress, to interrupt me if I should again touch upon a subject which in the opinion of the Tribunal refers to the justice of the Versailles Treaty and...
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Seidl, you know perfectly well the limits which have been laid down by the Tribunal many weeks ago as to the question of the justice or the injustice of the Treaty of Versailles. There has been a great number of documents rejected on the ground that they dealt with the justice or the injustice of the Treaty of Versailles, and you must have known that perfectly well.
DR. SEIDL: Then I ask the Tribunal to tell me whether I am permitted to make statements to the effect that the economic deterioration, especially the great unemployment, resulted from the reparations clauses of the Versailles Treaty and the refusal of the victorious powers of 1919 to change this reparations policy.
THE PRESIDENT: You may certainly state what the condition of Germany was. That is a matter of fact.
DR. SEIDL: Then I shall again begin on Page 8.
When in 1925 the Party was founded anew...
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Seidl, the Tribunal is perfectly familiar with this type of argument; I mean, we are not going to lose sight of the argument. We know all about the argument; we do not want to hear it. We think it is entirely irrelevant.
Can’t you go on to other passages of your speech which are important for the Defendant Hess? As I have said, there are a great many matters of which evidence has been given by the Prosecution and which have been answered by the Defense; and upon those matters we desire to hear you.
DR. SEIDL: I shall then begin on Page 10, with the second paragraph.