VOLUME XIV

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16 May 46
must not be left to the general staffs; secrecy would no longer
be guaranteed." And then it goes on, "This staff shall keep the
Fiihrer informed and shall report to him." I do not think it is
very important. Go on.
DR. SIEMERS: Apparently the paragraph about the research
staff in the Armed Forces High Command was left out in the
English. Continuing the document:
"The purpose of certain regulations concerns no one outside
the staff; however great the increase in armament of our
adversaries may be, they must at some time come to the end
of their resources and ours will be greater. The French have
120,000 men in each class! We shall not be forced into a war,
but we shall not be able to avoid one."
This research staff, in effect, eliminated the commanders-in-chief
and that was what Hitler wanted to achieve.
If I am correctly informed, the rest has been read by the Prose-
cution-namely, the subsequent aim and the principle, to be specific,
the well-known order to keep everything secret and, at the end,
that which the witness remembered, that the shipbuilding program
should not be changed and the armament program should be fixed
for 1943-1944.
[Turning to the defendant.] Had Hitler at this time intended a
war of aggression, would he have had to speed up any particular
part of the Navy's armament?
RAEDER: Yes, indeed. He would have had to speed up all naval
construction.
DR. SIEMERS: Would not the construction of submarines especially
have hah .to be speeded up?
RAEDER: Yes, of course, particularly because they could be
built most quickly.
DR. SIEMERS: How many submarines did you have at this time?
RAEDER: I cannot say exactly. I think about 26. .
DR. SIEMERS: If I remember rightly, Admiral Donitz has already
answered that there were 15 capable of sailing in the Atlantic-by
the way, there were altogether 26.
RAEDER: Yes.
DR. SIEMERS: Admiral, in the winter of 1938-1939, did you
have a talk with Sir Nevile Henderson en relations between Ger-
many and England?
RAEDER: Yes, a very short talk at an evening reception in the
Fiihrer's house, where I stood near Ambassador Henderson and
Herr Von Neurath, and wherein the question was discussed-it was