CONDUCT OF WAR CRIMES TRIALS

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25637, 28 October 1948, Page 5

CONDUCT OF WAR CRIMES TRIALS

Reported Move For Inquiry In U.S.

ALLEGED “PHONEY CONFESSIONS”

'(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10 p.m.) NEW YORK, Oct. 26. The New York "Daily News” columnist, John O’Donnell, says: “Many Senators are so shocked at how United States officials conducted war crimes trials-in Germany that they believed that if the full story is'told it will kill America’s reputation in foreign countries.”

According to O’Donnell these senators, who are opposed to a proposed Congressional investigation of the trials, say: “Why not reverse and change as many sentences as we can, cease hangings, and confess our sins privately?’ 7 O’Donnell says: “A recent report by experienced United States jurists on the commutation of 29 death sentences shows that because the American ‘avenging angels’ watited some hanging cases to avenge the killing of American prisoners during the Battle of the Bulge (the last German counteroffensive), phoney confessions were obtained by third degree methods still unheard of in even the toughest police headquarters basements. “Beatings up, so that dentists and doctors had to work overtime on fractured jaws, et cetera, are nothing new, but the trick of investigators masquerading as Catholic priests and Lutheran pastors to secure confessions and the introduction of the confessions as evidence at trials is something new in American jurisprudence. Now it develops that innocent men cohfessed under torture and were promised that they would get off with life instead of hanging if they would accuse fellow soldiers. They were told at the same time that their mothers and sisters would be provided with ration cards, so that these latter would no longer have to submit to sexual relations with conqueror troops to obtain food and cigarettes.”

SOUTH KOREAN REVOLT

STORY OF MASSACRE IN | SUNCHON "Rec. 7 p.m.) NEW YORK. Oct. 26. “Over 500 civilians and 60 police were slain at Sunchon, Korea, in a four-day reign of terror by 2000 mutinous soldiers of the new South Korean Army,” says the Far Eastern correspondent of the New York “Herald Tribune’ m a dispatch from Sunchon dated October 24. “The troops, led by Communist plotters, began their massacres on October, 20, looting stores, banks, hotels, and homes, and murdering men, women, and children indiscriminately,” says the dispatch. “Driven from the city by loyal troops, the rebels took to the hills, virtually without the loss of any men, and with large stores of munitions. The Loyalists captured 180 rebels.

“The entire 14th Regiment of the South Korean Army took part in the Red terror. Many of the soldiers from farms, and they inherit a strong hatred for the police and rice collectors, so they are -'ertile ground for Communist agitation. “This city, the name of which in English would be ‘peaceful haven,’ is as grim a chamber of horrors as a man could imagine, with bullet-riddled corpses lying in the streets while griefcrazed women go weeping in search of the slain men of their families. The city is a wreck. One of the first sights that met the eyes of• American correspondents reaching Sunchon was a rifle squad of executioners standing over their fallen enemies. “The American Presbyterian mission schbol was seized by the Communists and badly damaged. It had the Red flag flying over it for two days. Two other flags waved over the city during the days of terror. They were the flags of the North Korean People’s Republic, sponsored by Russia. and the South Korean Labour Party, which is a Communist creation.”

DOCUMENT READ IN PARLIAMENT

PRIVILEGE CHALLENGED IN W. AUSTRALIA

(Rec. 7 p.m.) PERTH, October 27. The privilege of a member of the Western Australian State Legislative Assembly has been challenged by a magistrate in the Police Court.. In a reserved decision. Mr A. G. Smith, a stipendiary magistrate, ordered Mr G. H. Yates, a member of the Legislative Assembly, to produce a document relating to the police force which he read in the Legislative Assembly last month:

Mr Smith added that if the document was not produced by November 16, when a defamation case in which Mr Yates is a witness will be heard, he would commit Mr Yates to gaol. He undertook not to produce the ‘document to the court.

Mr Smith said that the document was not in the possession of Parliament, and it did not appear to have been recorded in the proceedings of Parliament. He therefore held that the document was not privileged, and was admissible in court A Parliamentary committee comprising members of the coalition Liberal and Country Party Government and the Labour Opposition is discussing the introduction of a Privilege Bill to protect Mr Yates, who is a former serviceman and has been Liberal member for Canning since last year.

INTERIM GOVERNMENT IN. INDONESIA

PLANS APPROVED BY DUTCH CHAMBER (N.Z.P.A.—Reuter—Copyright) (Rec. 7 p.m.) THE HAGUE, Oct. 26. The Second Chamber of the Netherlands Parliament to-day approved the Government’s plans to establish an interim Federal Government in Indonesia. Approval was given by 69 votes to