GOERING'S PLEA FOR OTHER ACCUSED

Chronicle (Levin), 18 March 1946, Page 8

GOERING'S PLEA FOR OTHER ACCUSED

REASONS FOR INVASION EVIDENCE AT NUREMBERG Received Sunday, 7.2Q p.m* EQNriON, march 17.. Goering, answering Keitei ' s counsel at the Nuremberg trials concernmg Keitei 's position in the Wehrmacht, riigh Command, replied that Hitler was so busy during the war that it often took several weeks to get him to sign a decree. .or order. Staff ofiicers signed the documents, and that was why Keitei signed many orders. He was very mdus'trious, and had a most ungratefui job. Keitei pleaded for permission to leave Hitler's entourage for a minor field command, even a division. He fiaa an ungratefui duty, but had to. do it when and where the Fuhrer command- 1 ed. Goering,. replying to Doenitz's coun sel, said the Germans arranged to pro vide fleets of Red Cross reacue piane_ to save AUied airmen shot down in the channel, bui: so many Red Cross pianeo were shot down that. he suggested arm mg them and removing tne Red Cross j markings. Goering asserted that intensive nego tiations had taken place between the British and French Governments on- a planned occupation of Belgium. He wai giving his version of the reasons for thc German invasion of Belgium and HoiI nn 8 .

"The French chief of staff and Ad miral Danan demanded the occupation of Belgium for the security of France,he said. "When we were marchmg into France we found secret documents oe ionging to the French General Statt, and mmutes of conferences between thc British and French Governments." uoering said that tne vuineraDUitj of Belgium and Molland and mcreased British and French pressure on thc jtiuhr made observance of the neutraiity of the Low Countries impossible. "Hov ju stifi ed we were is seen from reportc in whieh the chief of the British Government explained to tne War Council how the Ruhr could best be attacked by low-flymg British aircraft whieh could be taken over Belgium and then at the iast moment attack the Ruhr Valley

from Belgium, ' ' he said. ' ' If the plan was not carried out it was due to objection from the French Prime Minister, who was worried about French industry. He wanted to leave it to us to make the first attack against industry." Goering indignantly ciaimea tliat, far from being a looter of Europe's art treasures, he bought all he received. He was often cheated by the Frcnch anu others when it was known that he was mteresfced. He had a trading agreement with French museuius, and when the directors of the Bouvre were afraiu of the bomoing he had offered to trans port the treasures to a safe place. Goering described a sclieme for giving financial help to the families of Frenchmen killed in action by seliing art treasures to the Germans. He -leclared that he paid sums for this pur-

pose, but that the Reich huancial authorities refused to transfer the money to, the French. Goering said that Hitler ordered treasures from the Louvre to be taken to a proposed museum at Juinz. When the art treasures were conttscated he had considered himself justified in buy ing some for a gallery he was estabiishing for the German people. Hitler had agreed to his gallery plan but demanded photostat copies of purchases. after whieh, if the Fuhrer wanted one ofthese purchases for his own museum, Gnering would liand it over. Explaining the bombing of Warsaw, Rotterdam, and Coventry, Goering claimed that he could produce a report from the French military attache at Warsaw stating that the Germans bomb ed Only military targets in Poland. ' ' After repeated warnlngs, ' ' he aaid, ' ' and after the Fuhrer had reserved the | right of reprisal against Bondon — but he hesitated to do so in spite of the hombing of German cities — we attacked Bondon as a form of politieal pressure. Bven then I did not cpnsider it was an attainahle goal. I kne'w from the First World War that the people of .London could take it and ' that we couid not break their military resistance in that way. "Although the Fuhrer wanted Bondon to be attacked, I chose Coventry as a target beeause from my ^lnformation the main part of Britain 's aircraft in dustry was located in and around Cov-. entry and Birmingham, but the targets at Coventry were the most concentrat ed. I planned the attack myself. 1 prepared the attack, checked all the plans, and d^ecided to await a moonlight night.

"In the attack the city was seriously hit, but most of the damage was done by fire. Book at the German citiea and you will see what fire can do to a city. ' ' droering told of how he liad advised the Fuhrer not to attack Russia but to invade England and Gibraltar instead. He said, he told Hitler that soonar or later the United States would march against the Germans, but Hitler, who was suspicious of Russian moves in the Balkans, Poland and Finland, was convinced that Russia wr.s preparing to attack Germany. Goering said he was surprised at Hit ler's decisioiv tq attack -Russia in the summer of 1941. He told Hitler that he was not, at the moment, in favour of a war. "I was not concerned witfi international law," he said, "hut politieal and. military reasons."

Goering said that the attack against England and Gibraltar was mothodically prepared. An attack by the Buttwaffe against the small British foree north of the Rock of Gibraltar would have heen carried out from North Al'rica. Thjs would have prevented t,he deployment of the British and American force's in North Africa from. their North African hases. Suhmarines. couid have harassed convoys from South America. Suez, could have heen held by a few divisoins, and the Mediterranean closed. j "I urged Hitler. to put these considerations in.the foreground and re-exam-ine the proposal concerning Russia," said Goering. "Hitler, however, de-l

cided to break the Russian preparariona with strong, quick blows before America was ready. By weakening the Russian forces he planned to remove the danger of a war on two f'ronts wnen fighting " began on the Continent, against Britain and America. ' ' Conciuding his evidence-in-chief, Goering saidT- "Bastly, finally and in eon clusion, in the words of Mr. "Churchill, in the struggle for life and death there is no legality." Goering 's direct testimony lasted 15 | hours. Plis cross-examinatoin will be gin next week.