by the way, that the General is said to have given Schmidt a fearful dressing down for his way of presenting the prosecution. It probably won’t be long now before he’s forced to bring in Bratianu. In which case, Schmidt will just have to be more incisive.
Tadeusz Haller
: Oh, you’re already here, gentlemen?
Colonel Pigafetta
: Yes, an internal military matter brought us together.
Tadeusz Haller
: I see. I understand yesterday’s session was rather short.
Colonel Orbal
: Is the General … I mean, has the Chief of State been …
Tadeusz Haller
: Irritated? Not at all. As I said on the first day, the Chief of State has from the start indicated that time is not that important. The main aim of this session is that the court informs itself so thoroughly on the background of the Velder case that the verdict on the various sections will be absolutely unassailable, even for scrutiny in the legislature.
Major von Peters
: I still don’t really see the point.
Tadeusz Haller
: Between ourselves, I think the Chief of State intends to use the verdicts against Velder, and this whole investigation, as a club with which to beat the civil lawyers who are at present in the Ministry and the legislature.
Commander Kampenmann
: You yourself are one of them.
Tadeusz Haller
: My position is, as you will realise, somewhat different. I am the Chief of State’s personal adviser. The Chief of State, however, is a soldier. He relies more on military than on civil justice.
Major von Peters
: Thank God for that. Who is presenting the case today?
Tadeusz Haller
: Schmidt. I was speaking to him just now in the hall.
Major von Peters
: He probably won’t be coming tomorrow. Get going, now, Mateo.
Colonel Orbal
: Of course. Let the others in, Brown.
Captain Schmidt
: We have now penetrated somewhat more deeply into our mission. The first thirty-two charges in the case against Velder, together with completely conclusive evidence have been submitted to the court. Before I proceed to the detailed submission concerning the continued criminal activities of the accused, I would like once again to take up the matter concerning which social and ethical factors impelled Velder along his course of crime and more and more deeply into moral decay. I request in this case to be allowed to refer to the registered documentation of the preliminary investigation.
Colonel Orbal
: What? What did you say?
Major von Peters
: More reading aloud?
Captain Schmidt
: I intend to show, point by point, that it was the slackness and lack of moral responsibility in the existing form of society, its contempt for the fear of God and its indifference to the evident respect for firm leadership, which brought about Velder’s—and that of many others—final ruin.
Colonel Pigafetta
: Please keep your orations for the final summing up.
Captain Schmidt
: To illustrate how the society that turned Velder into a criminal really functioned, I would like to refer to V II/13 of the preliminary investigation. This consists of a letter, written about two years after the liberation, by the then Councillor Aranca Peterson, later sentenced to death
in contumacia
.
Colonel Orbal
: In what? What on earth did you say, man?
Captain Schmidt
: Four years ago, she was sentenced to death for treason, in her absence.
Colonel Orbal
: Well, we all know that.
Captain Schmidt
: Aranca Peterson seems to have written this letter quite privately. You will find tendencies in it which indicate that even a fallen woman such as she was, suffered from subconscious pangs of conscience and felt a need, at least to herself, to show shame and regret over the conditions of chaos and criminal immorality which she and her fellow-conspirators had brought to the country. The letter is franked Zürich and addressed to another member of the Council, Janos Edner, with whom the aforementioned Aranca Peterson lived in unseemly circumstances.
Lieutenant Brown
: Appendix V II/13. Marked secret accordingto
Tadeusz Haller
: Oh, you’re already here, gentlemen?
Colonel Pigafetta
: Yes, an internal military matter brought us together.
Tadeusz Haller
: I see. I understand yesterday’s session was rather short.
Colonel Orbal
: Is the General … I mean, has the Chief of State been …
Tadeusz Haller
: Irritated? Not at all. As I said on the first day, the Chief of State has from the start indicated that time is not that important. The main aim of this session is that the court informs itself so thoroughly on the background of the Velder case that the verdict on the various sections will be absolutely unassailable, even for scrutiny in the legislature.
Major von Peters
: I still don’t really see the point.
Tadeusz Haller
: Between ourselves, I think the Chief of State intends to use the verdicts against Velder, and this whole investigation, as a club with which to beat the civil lawyers who are at present in the Ministry and the legislature.
Commander Kampenmann
: You yourself are one of them.
Tadeusz Haller
: My position is, as you will realise, somewhat different. I am the Chief of State’s personal adviser. The Chief of State, however, is a soldier. He relies more on military than on civil justice.
Major von Peters
: Thank God for that. Who is presenting the case today?
Tadeusz Haller
: Schmidt. I was speaking to him just now in the hall.
Major von Peters
: He probably won’t be coming tomorrow. Get going, now, Mateo.
Colonel Orbal
: Of course. Let the others in, Brown.
Captain Schmidt
: We have now penetrated somewhat more deeply into our mission. The first thirty-two charges in the case against Velder, together with completely conclusive evidence have been submitted to the court. Before I proceed to the detailed submission concerning the continued criminal activities of the accused, I would like once again to take up the matter concerning which social and ethical factors impelled Velder along his course of crime and more and more deeply into moral decay. I request in this case to be allowed to refer to the registered documentation of the preliminary investigation.
Colonel Orbal
: What? What did you say?
Major von Peters
: More reading aloud?
Captain Schmidt
: I intend to show, point by point, that it was the slackness and lack of moral responsibility in the existing form of society, its contempt for the fear of God and its indifference to the evident respect for firm leadership, which brought about Velder’s—and that of many others—final ruin.
Colonel Pigafetta
: Please keep your orations for the final summing up.
Captain Schmidt
: To illustrate how the society that turned Velder into a criminal really functioned, I would like to refer to V II/13 of the preliminary investigation. This consists of a letter, written about two years after the liberation, by the then Councillor Aranca Peterson, later sentenced to death
in contumacia
.
Colonel Orbal
: In what? What on earth did you say, man?
Captain Schmidt
: Four years ago, she was sentenced to death for treason, in her absence.
Colonel Orbal
: Well, we all know that.
Captain Schmidt
: Aranca Peterson seems to have written this letter quite privately. You will find tendencies in it which indicate that even a fallen woman such as she was, suffered from subconscious pangs of conscience and felt a need, at least to herself, to show shame and regret over the conditions of chaos and criminal immorality which she and her fellow-conspirators had brought to the country. The letter is franked Zürich and addressed to another member of the Council, Janos Edner, with whom the aforementioned Aranca Peterson lived in unseemly circumstances.
Lieutenant Brown
: Appendix V II/13. Marked secret accordingto
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