At the end of November 1939 the Naval Operations Staff took the
consequent...
THE PRESIDENT: In our document it is 3 November. You said just now it
was some date in October.
FLOTTENRICHTER KRANZBÜHLER: 15 October, Mr. President. It is a
memorandum dated 15 October, which was submitted.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I thought you were dealing with Exhibit GB-224.
That is the one you have been reading just now.
FLOTTENRICHTER KRANZBÜHLER: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: That is headed on our Page 199, 3 November 1939.
FLOTTENRICHTER KRANZBÜHLER: Yes, Mr. President. The 3rd of November is
the date on which the memorandum was distributed to the High Command of
the Armed Forces and to the Foreign Office. I have just been told that
in the English text, above the word “Memorandum,” the date is apparently
not printed. In the original it says, right above the word “Memorandum,”
“Berlin, 15 October 1939.”
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
FLOTTENRICHTER KRANZBÜHLER: I have already submitted Document Dönitz-73,
on Page 206, in which neutrals are warned against entry into the zone
which corresponds to the American combat zone declared by President
Roosevelt on 4 November.
The German point of view, that entry into this zone constitutes a danger
to all neutrals by their own action, was also published in the press.
Therefore, I submit Document Dönitz-103 on Page 210. It is an interview
given by Admiral Raeder to a representative of the National Broadcasting
Company, New York, on 4 March 1940. I should like to read a few
sentences from that document. In the second paragraph Admiral Raeder
points out the danger existing for neutral merchant ships if they act in
a warlike manner and are consequently taken for enemy ships. The last
sentence of that paragraph reads:
“The German standpoint may be concisely expressed by the
formula: Whoever depends on the use of arms must be prepared for
attack by arms.”