WAR CRIMINALS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21549, 31 October 1944, Page 3

WAR CRIMINALS

TREATMENT DISCUSSED U.K. OFFICIAL CRITICISED (9 a.m.) NEW YORK, Oct. 30. A Soviet information bulletin has reprinted a War and the Working Class article sharply criticising Sir Cecil Hurst, chairman of the United Nations Commission investigating war crimes, says the New York HeraldTribune’s correspondent in Washington. The Russian publication cites various statements by Sir Cecil Hurst on the handling of war criminals and says: “This so-called jurisprudence is a poorly-concealed attempt to protect war criminals from the law of justice and punishment in the majestic temple of justice he erects. He provides extensive bomb-shelters, dug-outs and trenches into which indicted criminals may creep to escape the hand of justice.” The Russians allege that Sir'Cecil Hurst suggested that Hitler and Mussolini should be dealt with “as Napoleon was dealt with.” The article also takes exception to Sir Cecil Hurst’s statement that before the commission can decide to hand over criminals it must decide whether a criminal is guilty of only one crime and says: “If some Nazi miscreants only once threw children into a fire or asphyxiated civilians in murder wagons, does the demand that they be handed over lose validity?” The paper challenges a statement attributed to Sir Cecil Hurst that all the United Nations together cannot always secure delivery of war criminals from neutral States. The article points out that President Roosevelt, Marshal Stalin and Mr. Churchill clearly stated that the war criminals would be pursued to the uttermost ends of the earth.