"The construction or acquisition of any submarines, even for commercial purposes, shall be forbidden in Germany." for longer service, and 196 and 197 deal with naval fortifications and wireless stations. 198, the first of the Air Clauses. The essential, important sentence is the first:
"The armed forces of Germany must not include any military or naval air forces.
I don't think I need trouble the Tribunal with the detailed provisions which occur in the next four clauses, which are all consequential. to that, is British document TC 44, which for convenience I put in as GB 11, but this again is merely ancillary to Mr. Alderman's argument. It is the report of the formal statement made at the German Air Ministry about the restarting of the Air Corps, and I respectfully suggest that the Tribunal can take judicial notice of that. the Tribunal can again take judicial notice of the public proclamation, which is a well known public document in Germany, the proclamation of compulsory military service. Mr. Alderman has again dealt with this fully in his address. the United States and Germany restoring friendly relations, and I put in a copy as Exhibit GB 12. It is Document TC 11, and the Tribunal will find it as the second last document in the document book. The purpose of this treaty was to complete the official cessation of hostilities between the United States of America and Germany, and I have already explained to the Tribunal that it incorporated certain parts of the Treaty of Versailles. The relevant portion for the consideration of the Tribunal is Part 5, and I have just concluded going through the clauses of the Treaty of Versailles which are repeated verbatim in this treaty. I therefore, with the approval of the Tribunal, will not read them again, but at Page 11 of my copy, they will See the clauses are repeated in exactly the same way.
JUDGE BIDDLE: We don't have a copy in our book. We have (one with Austria.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: It ought to be the second last document in the book. May I pass mine up. Does that apply to other than the American Associate Judges? I'm so sorry. guarantee between Germany, Belgium, France, Great Britain and Italy, done at Locarno, October 16, 1925. I ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice of that, and I put in as Exhibit GB 13, the British Document TC 12.
THE PRESIDENT: At some later stage, you will have all the members furnished with a copy of this treat between the United States and Germany?
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: Oh, I thought it was only two that were deficient.
THE PRESIDENT: No, I think the Soviet member and my alternate, Mr. Justice Birkett, have the Austrian one. I think I am the only one that has the German one. I am not quite sure about the French member.
SIR DAVID MAZWELL-FYFE: I'm so sorry, Milord. I'll see that the American treaty is sent in.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: It will be done at once, but so far as reference is concerned, the Tribunal will appreciate that the clauses are word for word the same as the Versaille clauses. If they wish to refer to it in the meantime, it is the same as the clauses in the Versaille. That won't make any difference, Milord, in procuring a copy of the treaty. if I just reminded the Tribunal of the treaties that were negotiated at Locarno, because they do all go together and are to a certain extent mutually dependent.
At Locarno, Germany negotiated five treaties: (A) the Treaty of Mutual Guarantee between Germany, Belgium, France, Great Britain, and Italy;
(B) the Arbitration Convention between German and France; (C) the Arbitration Convention between Germany and Belgium; (D) the Arbitration Treaty between Germany and Poland; and (E) an Arbitration Treaty between Germany and Czechoslovakia. come into force as soon as ratifications were deposited at Geneva in the archives of the League of Nations and as soon as Germany became a member of the League of Nations. The ratifications were deposited on the 14th of September, 1926, and Germany became a member of the League of Nations. mentioned provided that they shall enter into force under the same conditions as the Treaty of Mutual Guarantee. That is Article 21 of the Arbitration Conventions and Article 22 of the arbitration treaties. Guarantee. One of the purposes was to establish in perpetuity the borders between Germany and Belgium and Germany and France. It contains no provision for denunciation or withdrawal therefrom and provides that it shall remain in force until the Council of the League of Nations decides that the League of Nations ensures sufficient protection to the parties to the Treaty -an event which never happened -- in which case the Treaty of Mutual Guarantee shall expire one year later. provides that the parties guarantee three things: the border between Germany and France, the border between Germany and Belgium, and the demilitarization of the Rhineland. agree that they will not attack or invade each other with certain inapplicable exceptions, and Article 3 provides that Germany and France and Germany and Belgium agree to settle all disputes between them by peaceful means. Mr. Alderman, that the first important violation of the Treaty of Mutual Guarantee appears to have been the entry of German troops into the Rhineland on 7 March, 1936.
The day after France and Belgium asked the League of Nations Council to consider the question of the German re-occupation of the Rhineland and the purported repudiation of the treaty, and on the 12th of March, after a protest from the British Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Belgium, France, Great Britain and Italy recognized unanimously that the re-occupation was a violation of this treaty, and on the 14th of March, the League Council duly and properly decided that it was not permissible and that the Rhineland clauses of the pact were not voidable by Germany because of the alleged violation by France in the Franco-Soviet Mutual Assistance Pact. that were then in force, and if I might suggest them to the Tribunal, without adding to the summary which I have given, the relevant articles are 1, 2 and 3, which I have mentioned, 4, which provides for the bringing of violations before the Council of the League, as was done, and 5 I ask the Tribunal to note, because it deals with the clauses of the Versailles Treaty which I have already mentioned. It says:
"The provisions of Article 3 of the present Treaty are placed under the guarantee of the High Contracting Parties as provided by the following stipulations:
"If one of the Powers referred to in Article 3 refuses to submit a dispute to peaceful settlement or to comply with an arbitral or judicial decision and commits a violation of Article 2 of the present Treaty or a breach of Article 42 or 43 of the Treaty at Versailles, the provisions of Article 4 of the present Treaty shall apply." breach or of taking more stringent action.
from Hitler which I mentioned earlier, when he said that the German Government will scrupulously maintain their treaties voluntarily signed, even though they conclude before their intercession of power. Then is stated the Treaty of Versailles. Whatever you argue, if it has been argued, no one has ever argued for a moment to the best of my knowledge that stresemann was in any way acting involuntarily when he signed the pact on behalf of Germany, along with the other representatives. He signed not there in Stresemann's name, but by Herr Hans Luther, so that there you have a treaty freely entered into, which repeats the violation provisions of the Versailles, and binds Germany in that regard. I simply call the attention of the Tribunal to Article 8, which deals with the preliminary enforcement of the Treaty by the League, which perhaps I should read because of the fact I told the Tribunal that all the other treaties had the same lasting qualities, the same provision contained therein as the Treaty of Mutual Guarantee:
"The present Treaty shall be registered at the League of protection to the High Contracting Parties; the Treaty of one year from such decision."
placed the question of repudiation or violation of the Treaty in the hands of others, as they were at the time, of course, members of the League, and members in the Council of the League; that they then left the repudiation or violations to the decision of the League.
Germany and Czechoslovakia, which was one of the Locarno groups to which I already referred my remarks, but that for convenience I am quoting GB 14, which is British document TC 14. As a breach to this Treaty, as charged in Charge 8, Appendix C, I mentioned the background of the Treaty, and I shall not go into it again. I think a good part that the Tribunal should look at is Article I, which is the governing clause, and sets out the dispute in document TC 14: "All disputes of every kind between Germany and Czechoslovakia with regard to which the Parties are in conflict ---"
THE PRESIDENT: Fourteen, you say, or TC 12 in the book?
SIR MAXWELL-FYFE: No, I am sorry, it is much nearer the end of the book.
THE PRESIDENT: After the Kellogg-Briand Pact?
SIR MAXWELL-FYFE: Yes, it is, I think, after that.
THE PRESIDENT: After TC 18?
SIR MAXWELL-FYFE: Yes, it is after TC 18, and there will be TC 22 and 26, which is short.
THE PRESIDENT: I am very sorry.
SIR MAXWELL-FYFE: And the next one, it comes after that, two after that.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
SIR MAXWELL-FYFE: And I was reading at the foot of the page, Article One.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
SIR MAXWELL-FYFE: "All disputes of every kind between Germany and Czechoslovakia with regard to which the Parties are in conflict as to their respective rights, and which it may not be possible to settle amicably by the normal methods of diplomacy, shall be submitted for decision either to an arbitral tribunal, or to the Permanent Court of International Justice as laid down hereafter. It is "agreed that the disputes referred to above include, in particular, those mentioned in Article 13 of the Covenant of the League of Nations." This provision does not apply to disputes arising out of or prior to the present Treaty and belonging to the past.
Disputes for the settlement of which a special procedure is laid down on other conventions in force between the High Contracting Parties, shall be settled in conformity with the provisions of those Conventions."
Articles Two to Twenty-one. This treaty was registered with the Secretariat in accordance with its Article 22. The second sentence shows the present Treaty was entered into and the terms in force under the same conditions as the said Treaty, which is the Treaty of Mutual Guarantee.
Now I think that is all I'll mention about those Treaties. 1 think I am right in saying my friend, Mr. Alderman, referred to it. It is certainly the Treaty to which President Benes unsuccessfully appealed during the crisis in the Autumn of 1938. Now the 9th Treaty, with which I should deal, is not in this document book, and I merely put it in formally, because my friend, Mr. Roberts, in dealing with it, read the appropriate parts of it verbatim, and that will be good enough to put into it what I first mentioned, particularly Article C, which is the Arbitration Convention between Germany and Belgium, over at Locarno, which I hand a copy for the convenience of the Tribunal, GB 15. It is a copy, I'll tell the Tribunal. This includes the order on this Arbitration Convention made in the same form, but I thought I would review the essential parts concerned with Belgium, the Low Countries and Luxembourg, which my friend, Mr. Roberts, will present. I only ask the Tribunal to accept the foremost document for the moment. And the same applies to the 10th Treaty, which is mentioned in Charge Ten of Appen dix C. That is the Arbitration Treaty between Germany and Poland, of which I ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice, and which I hand in as GB 16.
That again will be dealt with by my friend, Colonel Griffith Jones, when he is dealing with the Polish case. but is a solemn declaration, and that is TC 18, which I now put in as Exhibit GB 17, and ask that the Tribunal, take judicial notice of, as the Declaration of the Assembly of the League of Nations. The importance is the date which was 24 September 1927. The Tribunal may remember that I asked them to take judicial notice of the fact that Germany had become a member of the League of Nations on 10 September 1926, a year before. International Law, to which I will say my learned friend referred, but to the fact that it was unanimously adopted by the Assembly of the League of Nations, to which Germany was a free, and I might say, at once an active member at the time. I think that I need read TC 18, that is, if the Tribunal will be good enough to look at the speech made by M. Sokal, the Polish Rapporteur and this is the translation after the Rapporteur had dealt with the formalities. Referring to the committee's being unanimously adopted, M. Sokal, the Rapporteur, said in the second paragraph:
"The Committee was of opinion that, at the present juncture, a solemn atmosphere favorable to the League's future work in the matter of "While recognizing that the draft resolution does not constitute a agreed as to its great moral and educative value."
simply the terms of the resolution, which shows what so many nations, including Germany, had in mind at that time; the Assembly, recognizing the solidarity which unites the community of nations, being inspired by a firm desire for the maintenance of general peace, being convinced that a war of aggression can never serve as a means of settling international disputes, and is in consequence an international crime; considering that the solemn renunciation of all wars of aggression would tend to create an atmosphere of general confidence calculated to facilitate the progress of the work undertaken with a view to disarmament:
"Declares: 1 - That all wars of aggression are and shall always be prohibited. disputes of every description, which may arise between States. League are under an obligation to conform to these principles." and the fact of the solemn renunciation of war was taken in the form of a rollcall, and the President announced, you will see, at the end of the extract.
"All the delegations having pronounced in favour of the declaration submitted by the Third Committee, I declare it unanimously adopted."
THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): What is the date of that?
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FIFE: 24 September, 1937.
THE PRESIDENT: 24 September 1927.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: Yes, and Germany joined later, on 10 September 1926. Kellogg-Briand Pact. The Pact took effect in 1928, which my learned friend Attorney General in opening this part of the case read, and on coming to it fully I hand in as Exhibit GB 18 the British document TC 19, which is a copy of that Fact. I didn't intend unless the Tribunal desires otherwise that I should read it again, as Attorney General yesterday read it in full, because I looked at the same, and rather I leave the document before the Tribunal in that form.
documents which Mr. Alderman mentioned in the course of his address, and alas to me, I am afraid I have not kept them -- placed them in special order, because they don't relate to the Treaties, but to Mr. Alderman's article. The first of these as I hand in is Exhibit GB 19, this is British Document TC 26, and comes just after that resolution of the League of Nations, which the Tribunal had just been giving attention to, TC 26. It is the assurance contained in Hitler's speech on 21 May 1935, and it is very short, and unless the Tribunal has it in mind from Mr. Alderman's speech, I should like to read it again, and I'll read it. I am not sure it was read before as follows:
"Germany neither intends nor wishes to interfere in the domestic to her.
The German people and the German Government have, however, exist permanently."
I now hand in as GB 19, and is the official copy of the official proclamation of the Agreement between the German Government and the Government of the Federal State of Austria, on July 11, 1936, and I am almost certain that Mr. Alderman did read this document.
I refer the Tribunal to paragraph one of the agreement and to what it essentially contains:
"The German Government recognizes the full sovereignty of the of the German Leader and Chancellor of the 21st May, 1935."
THE PRESIDENT: GB 20.
SIR MAXWELL-FYFE: I now have three documents which Mr. Alderman asked me to hand in with regard to Czechoslovakia. The first is TC 27, which the Tribunal will find two documents farther on from the one There agreement with Austria, to which I just referred. That is the German Assurance to Czechoslovakia, and what I am handing in is GB 21, which is the letter from M. Masaryk, M. General Masaryk's son, to the learned Viscount Halifax on the date of 12 March 1938, and again I think that Mr. Alderman did read this. He certainly quoted the statement made by the defendant Goering, which appears in the third paragraph. In the first paragraph the Field Marshall used the expression "ich gebe ihnen mein." That means, "I gave my word of honor." If you will look down to the third paragraph, the one in which the defendant Goering had asked that there would not be a mobilization of the Czechoslovak Army, and in the next paragraph:
"M. Mastny was in a position to give him definite and binding assurances on this subject, and today spoke with Baron von Neurath, who, among other things, assured him on behalf of Herr Hitler that Germany still considers herself bound by the German-Czechoslovak Arbitration Convention concluded at Locarno in October 1925." So there I remind the Tribunal that in 1925 Baron von Neurath was speaking on behalf of Germany in an agreement voluntarily concluded;
had there been the slightest doubt of that question the defendant Neurath giving the assurance on behalf of Hitler that Germany still considered itself bound by the German-Czechoslovakia Arbitration Convention on the 12 March 1938, six months before Dr. Benes made a hopeless appeal to it before the crisis in the Army in 1938. There is Czechoslovakia's difficult position in the Czechoslovakian Government, which is set out in the last paragraph that M. Mastny said, and of which the Tribunal may think is of great force in this last sentence:
"They can not however fail to view with great apprehension 1936, and yesterday, 11 March 1938."
most pregnant sentences relating to this period. Document TC 28, which I hand in as Exhibit GB 22. That is an Assurance of the 26 September 1938, which Hitler gave to Czechoslovakia, and again the Tribunal will take my remark with it that Mr. Alderman read this document.
THE PRESIDENT: No, I don't recall it.
SIR MAXWELL-FYFE: If it didn't, the Tribunal ought to have it before them, because it has many important points as to the alleged governmental assurance in getting Germans together and the right which the Nazi conspirators purposely asked for a considerable time as its citizens, which said:
"I have a little to explain. I am grateful to Mr. Chamberlain people want nothing but peace; but I have also told him that I can not go back beyond the limits of our patience."
and the Munich Pact:
"I assured him, moreover, and I repeat it here, that when this problem is solved there will be no more territorial problems for Germany in Europe. And I further assured him that from the moment when Czechoslovakia solves its other problems, that is to say, when the Czechs have come to an arrangement with their other minorities peacefully, and without oppression, I will no longer be interested in the Czech State. And that, as far as I am concerned, I will guarantee it. We don't want any Czechs. But I must also declare before the German people that in the Sudetan German problem my patience is not at an end. I made an offer to Herr Benes which was no more than the realization of what he had already promised. He now has peace or war in his hands. Either he will accept this offer and at length give the Germans their freedome, or we will get this freedom for ourselves."
This is six months before 15 March. Hitler was saying in the second paragraph when he violated the terms, "He did'nt want any Czechs." I shall now ask, as I am asked by my friend Mr. Alderman this morning, the last document which I shall ask to put in, which I now ask the Tribunal to take the judicial notice of, and hand in is G.B.-23, which is the British document TC-23 a copy of the Munich Agreement of September 29 1938. That was signed by Hitler, later by Mr. Chamberlain, and Mr. Daladier and Mussolino, and which is largely a procedural agreement by which the entry of German troops into Sudeten-Deutsche territory is regulated. That is shown by the preliminary clause:- "Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy", and "taking into consideration the agreement which has already reached in principle for the cession to Germany of the Sudeten German territory as agreed on the following terms and conditions governing the said cession and the measures consequent thereon, and by this agreement they each hold them selves responsible for the steps necessary to secure fulfilment."
I don't think unless the Tribunal wants it, I shall go through the steps in Article 4. It states that "The occupation by stages of the predominantly German territory by German troops will begin on 1 October.
The four territories marked on the attached map, "and by article 6, "The final determination of the frontiers will be carried out by the international commission." And it provides also that there is the rights of option and the release from the forces -- the Czech forces of Sudeten Germans.
It provides also for various rights of option and release from "Annex to the Agreement:
"His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom and the French "When the question of the Polish and Hungarian minorities in will give a guarantee to Czechoslovakia."
"The Polish and Hungarian minorities," not the question of Slovakia which the Tribunal heard this morning.
That is why Mr. Alderman submitted, and I respectfully joined him in his
THE PRESIDENT: We will now recess for ten minutes.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: Thank you.
(A recess was taken from 15.30 to 15.40 hours.)
SIR GRIFFITH JONES: May it please the Tribunal, Count 2 of the treaty.
It is our purpose now to present to the Tribunal the evidence Under Paragraph B. of the particulars to that Count 2, reference in particular those allegations will be found in Paragraph F-4. But, My Lord, with the Tribunal's approval I would propose first to deal Paragraph C. of the particulars, and of which the details are set out in Appendix C. Those sections of Appendix C. which relate to the don't propose, with the Court's approval, to say more than that.
Section 3 of Appendix C. and Section 4 charge breaches of the other Hague Conventions of 1907.
Section 5 (sub-section 4) charges other Sections of Appendix C: Section 10, which charges a breach of on the 16th of October, 1925, and Section 15 of Appendix C., which No. 2, I will desribe in a moment how the remaining parts are divided.
The Document Book is divided into six parts. The Tribunal will look at Part 1 for the moment.
The Document Books which have been handed to Tribunal's documents are bound for convenience.
of Appendix C. is Document TC-15 and it is the end document in the book.
It has already been put in under the number GB-16.
"THE PRESIDENT OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE and THE PRESIDENT OF THE
POLISH REPUBLIC:
"Equally resolved to maintain peace between Germany and Poland by assuring the peaceful settlement of differences which might arise between the two countries;
"Declaring that respect for the rights established by treaty or resulting from the law of nations is obligatory for international tribunals;
"Agreeing to recognize that the rights of a State cannot be modified save with its consent;
"And considering that sincere observance of the methods of peaceful settlement of international disputes permits of resolving, without recourse to force, questions which may become the cause of division between States;
"Have decided..."
Then, go on to Article 1:
"All disputes of every kind between Germany and Poland with regard to which the Parties are in conflict as to their respective rights, and which it may not be possible to settle amicably by the normal methods of diplomacy, shall be submitted for decision either to an arbitral tribunal or to the Permanent Court of International Justice, as laid down hereafter."
I go straight to Article 2:
"Before any resort is made to arbitral procedure before the Permanent Court of International Justice, the dispute may, by agreement between the Parties, be submitted, with a view to amicable settlement, to a permanent international commission, styled the Permanent Conciliation Commission, constituted in accordance with the present Treaty." and for conciliation.
THE PRESIDENT: It is in the same terms, is it not, as the arbitration treaty between Germany and Czechoslovakia and Germany and Belgium?
SIR GRIFFITH JONES: Well -- yes, it is, My Lord, both signed at Locarno.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
SIR GRIFFITH JONES: The wording, however, of the charge in Section 10, it will be noted, is that Germany did, on or about the 1st of September 1939 unlawfully attack and invade Poland without having first attempted to settle its disputes with Poland by peaceful means.
of the 26th of January 1934, will be found as the last document in Part 1 of the Tribunal's Document Book, which is the subject of Section 10 of Appendix C.
"The German Government and the Polish Government" -- this, of course, was signed on the 26th of January, 1934.
"The German Government and the Polish Government consider that the time has come to introduce a new era in the political relations between Germany and Poland by a direct understanding between the States. They have therefore decided to establish by the present declaration a basis for the future shaping of those relations.
"The two Governments assume that the maintenance and assurance of a permanent peace between their countries is an essential condition for general peace in Europe."
THE PRESIDENT: Do you think it's necessary to read all this? We're taking judicial knowledge of it.
SIR GRIFFITH JONES: I'm very willing to oblige. I'm willing to shorten this, if I can. ticularly draw attention to the last paragraph in that declaration.
"The declaration shall remain in effect for a period of ten years counting from the day of exchange of instruments of ratification. In case it is not denounced by one of the two governments six months before the expiration of that period of time, it shall continue in effect but can then be denounced by either government at a time of six months and at any time in advance." evidence upon the planning and preparation of these wars and in support of the allegations that they were wars of aggression. For convenience, as I say, the documents have been divided into separate parts and if the Tribunal would look at the index, the total index to their document which is a separate book, on the front page it will be seen how these documents have been divided, Part 1 is the "Treaties"; Part 2 is entitled "Evidence of German Intentions Prior to March 1935 in '39". It might perhaps be more accurately described as "Pre-March, 1939, Evidence", and it will be with that part that I would now deal.
Czechoslovakia were in themselves part of the preparation for further aggression, and I only now--dealing with the early history of this matter-wish to draw the court's particular attention to those parts of the evidence which show that even at that time, before the Germans had seized the whole of Czechoslovakia, they were perfectly prepared to fight England, Poland and Prance, if necessary, to achieve those aims; that they appreciated the whole time that they might well have to do so. And, what is more, that, although not until after March, 1939, did they commence upon their immediate and specific preparations for a specific war against Poland, nevertheless, they had for a considerable time before had it in mind specifically to attack Poland once Czechoslovakia was completely theirs. of the Nazi regime in Germany, as afterwards, while they are making their preparations and carrying out their plans, they are giving to the outside world assurance after assurance so as to lull them out of any suspicion of their real object. yesterday--the dates in this case almost more than the documents speak for themselves. The documents in this book are arranged in the order in which I will refer to them, and the first that I would refer to is document TC-70, which will go in as GB-25.
It's only interesting to see what Hitler said of the agreement with Poland when it was signed in January, 1934.
"When I took over the Government on the 30th of January, the relations between the two countries seemed to me more than unsatisfactory. There was a danger that the existing differences which were due to the Territorial Clauses of the Treaty of Versailles and the mutual tension resulting therefrom Would gradually crystalize into a state of hostility which, if persisted, might too easily acquire the character of a dangerous traditional enmity."
"In the spirit of this Treaty the German Government is willing and prepared to cultivate economic relations with Poland in such a way that here, too, the state of unprofitable suspicion can be succeeded by a period of useful cooperation. It is a matter of particular satisfaction to us that in this same year the National Socialist Government of Danzig has been enabled to effect a similar clarification of its relations with its Polish neighbor."
That was in 1934. Three years later, again on the 30th of January, speaking in the Reichstag, Hitler said -- this is document PS-2369, which will be G3-26. I will, if I may, avoid so far as possible repeating passages which the Attorney General quoted in his speech the other day. The first paragraph, in fact, he quoted to the Tribunal. It's a short paragraph, but perhaps I might read it now, but I will -- dealing with this evidence -- so far as possible avoid repetition.
"By a series of agreements we have eliminated existing tension and thereby contributed considerably to an improvement in the European atmosphere. I merely recall an agreement with Poland which has worked out to the advantage of both sides. True statemanship will not overlook reality but consider them. The Italian nation and the new Italian state arc realities. The German nation and the German Reich are equally realities, and to my own fellow citizens I would say that the Polish nation and the Polish state have also become a reality."
On the 24th of June, 1937, we have a "Top Secret Order", C-175, which has already been put in as "US-69". It is a "Top Secret Order" issued by the Reich Minister for War and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, signed "Von Blomberg". There is at the top, "Written by an Officer.