DOCUMENT FALSIFIED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20056, 30 September 1939, Page 10

DOCUMENT FALSIFIED

WHITE PAPER VERSION

LAST HOURS OF CRISIS

EXPOSURE IN FRANCE

(Elbc. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (British Official Wireless.) Rcccl. 0 a.m. RUGBY, Sept. 29. A closer study of the German official publication of the "last phase of the German-Polish crisis” has revealed, in the case of one document, deliberate falsification, which has been exposed in the French press.

The telegram in question concerns a message coming from the Havas News Agency, which dealt with the earlier of the two proposals made respectively on August 31 and September 2 by the Italian Government for a conference to settle the PolishGerman dispute, and addressed to the French and other Governments.

To the first proposal the French Government, in agreement with Britain, gave an affirmative reply. Before the second proposal was made on September 2, German troops had entered Poland.

The Havas News Agency’s telegram printed by the German Foreign Office referred, as already explained, to tl)e earlier Italian proposals and was dispatched from Paris on the night of September 1-2. It stated that the French Government had been informed “yesterday”—that is on August 31—of the Italian demarche and had given an affirmative reply. Crucial Word Omitted But as it appears in the German White Paper the word “yesterday” is omitted. This suppression from the original text gives, and was intended to give, the impression that the French affirmative reply related to the last j Italian demarche on September 2, and iso to deceive German and foreign public opinion into believing that there was a difference between the French and British Governments regarding the second Italian initiative and that the French Government was willing, despite the German invasion of Poland, to consider a suggestion for a conference which the British Government, on "the contrary, had rejected. The deliberate omission of a word of crucial significance from the text of the Havas message in the German White Paper constitutes a veritable falsification such as much render suspect every document in the White Paper for which other verification is impossible.