so carefully that even now, so long afterwards, you can give such a detailed account of it?
Velder
: We hadn’t had the helicopters all that long. I was curious, sir. And my memory has been well exercised too.
Lieutenant Bratianu
: I think it seems extremely unlikely that you were standing there in order to stare at an aeroplane, when according to your own evidence—do you hear, your own evidence—you were on your way to carry out an important official duty.
Colonel Pigafetta
: It seems to be quite analogous with Velder’s way of carrying out his duties in general, I think. Anyhow, a helicopter isn’t an aeroplane, Lieutenant Bratianu.
Lieutenant Bratianu
: I beg your pardon, sir. Well, Velder, let us continue, even if I’m not satisfied with your answers. On the following evening, the so-called Council met. Were you present?
Velder
: Yes, sir. For some time Osw … the General had got into the habit of asking me to come with him as a personal bodyguard to Council meetings, too.
Lieutenant Bratianu
: Asking you? What sort of expression is that? Have you no manners or respect? What had the General done? He had got into the habit of what?
Velder
: Allowing me to go with him to Council meetings as bodyguard.
Lieutenant Bratianu
: Who was present at the meeting, apart from the General and yourself? Don’t stand there sleeping, Velder. Answer. I want speedy replies.
Colonel Orbal
: What frightful shouting.
Velder
: The usual, sir. Aranca Peterson, Joakim Ludolf, Janos Edner and Tadeusz Haller.
Lieutenant Bratianu
: I request to be allowed to call Justice Haller as witness.
Major von Peters
: Granted.
Lieutenant Brown
: Justice Haller, do you swear by Almighty God to keep strictly to the truth?
Tadeusz Haller
: I do.
Lieutenant Bratianu
: So you were present at this actual meeting, Mr Haller. Would you be kind enough to tell us what happened there?
Tadeusz Haller
: Well, with some reservations as to failure of memory. This happened almost six years ago, after all.
Lieutenant Bratianu
: Naturally.
Tadeusz Haller
: The Council was meeting as usual in the building in Oswaldsburg which was then used as a kind of government office. Today the National Christian Youth Guard’s offices are in the same building. No special agenda was followed at these meetings, and affairs and matters sent in by individual citizens used to be dealt with and discussed, after which decisions were made in one direction or another. Usually the matter was referred back to the person who had sent it in to settle himself.
Lieutenant Bratianu
: And decisions were made by voting?
Tadeusz Haller
: No, that hardly ever happened. Voting is democratic and according to the ideas of the régime of the time, was to be avoided. According to the philosophy developed largely by Janos Edner and Aranca Peterson, unnecessary voting led to situations in which more or less against their own will, people were driven into traps and divided into groups and parties, which came about from an artificial drawing of boundaries and therefore constituted obstacles for personal thinking and a threat to freedom. In actual fact, voting was only brought up once, as far as I remember. That was far earlier and then it was over a suggestion made by General Oswald to purchase motor-vehicles suited to our terrain, jeeps for the militia, seven hundred of them, I think. The members of the Council who later became traitors were opposed to the suggestion and the General himself requested a vote. But it was nevercarried out. The decision to buy was taken all the same.
Lieutenant Bratianu
: This is of little importance. I apologise for my ill-thought-out question which led to this digression.
Major von Peters
: The Prosecuting Officer’s apology is accepted.
Tadeusz Haller
: At the meeting, the matter of the crashed helicopter was taken up. The atmosphere grew very irritable, which was unusual. The immediate cause of this was that the newspapers had that same day contained
Velder
: We hadn’t had the helicopters all that long. I was curious, sir. And my memory has been well exercised too.
Lieutenant Bratianu
: I think it seems extremely unlikely that you were standing there in order to stare at an aeroplane, when according to your own evidence—do you hear, your own evidence—you were on your way to carry out an important official duty.
Colonel Pigafetta
: It seems to be quite analogous with Velder’s way of carrying out his duties in general, I think. Anyhow, a helicopter isn’t an aeroplane, Lieutenant Bratianu.
Lieutenant Bratianu
: I beg your pardon, sir. Well, Velder, let us continue, even if I’m not satisfied with your answers. On the following evening, the so-called Council met. Were you present?
Velder
: Yes, sir. For some time Osw … the General had got into the habit of asking me to come with him as a personal bodyguard to Council meetings, too.
Lieutenant Bratianu
: Asking you? What sort of expression is that? Have you no manners or respect? What had the General done? He had got into the habit of what?
Velder
: Allowing me to go with him to Council meetings as bodyguard.
Lieutenant Bratianu
: Who was present at the meeting, apart from the General and yourself? Don’t stand there sleeping, Velder. Answer. I want speedy replies.
Colonel Orbal
: What frightful shouting.
Velder
: The usual, sir. Aranca Peterson, Joakim Ludolf, Janos Edner and Tadeusz Haller.
Lieutenant Bratianu
: I request to be allowed to call Justice Haller as witness.
Major von Peters
: Granted.
Lieutenant Brown
: Justice Haller, do you swear by Almighty God to keep strictly to the truth?
Tadeusz Haller
: I do.
Lieutenant Bratianu
: So you were present at this actual meeting, Mr Haller. Would you be kind enough to tell us what happened there?
Tadeusz Haller
: Well, with some reservations as to failure of memory. This happened almost six years ago, after all.
Lieutenant Bratianu
: Naturally.
Tadeusz Haller
: The Council was meeting as usual in the building in Oswaldsburg which was then used as a kind of government office. Today the National Christian Youth Guard’s offices are in the same building. No special agenda was followed at these meetings, and affairs and matters sent in by individual citizens used to be dealt with and discussed, after which decisions were made in one direction or another. Usually the matter was referred back to the person who had sent it in to settle himself.
Lieutenant Bratianu
: And decisions were made by voting?
Tadeusz Haller
: No, that hardly ever happened. Voting is democratic and according to the ideas of the régime of the time, was to be avoided. According to the philosophy developed largely by Janos Edner and Aranca Peterson, unnecessary voting led to situations in which more or less against their own will, people were driven into traps and divided into groups and parties, which came about from an artificial drawing of boundaries and therefore constituted obstacles for personal thinking and a threat to freedom. In actual fact, voting was only brought up once, as far as I remember. That was far earlier and then it was over a suggestion made by General Oswald to purchase motor-vehicles suited to our terrain, jeeps for the militia, seven hundred of them, I think. The members of the Council who later became traitors were opposed to the suggestion and the General himself requested a vote. But it was nevercarried out. The decision to buy was taken all the same.
Lieutenant Bratianu
: This is of little importance. I apologise for my ill-thought-out question which led to this digression.
Major von Peters
: The Prosecuting Officer’s apology is accepted.
Tadeusz Haller
: At the meeting, the matter of the crashed helicopter was taken up. The atmosphere grew very irritable, which was unusual. The immediate cause of this was that the newspapers had that same day contained
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