WAR CRIMINALS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21933, 30 January 1946, Page 3

WAR CRIMINALS

TRIALS IN JAPAN NEW ZEALAND’S ATTITUDE As tjie membership of Ihe international military tribunal lo be established by General MacArthur in Tokyo to try suspected Japanese war criminals has not yet been announced, the two New Zealand nominees, Mr. Justice Norlhcroft, of Christchurch, and Mr. R. H. Quilliam, solicitor, of New Plymouth, have not yet left the Dominion. It is reported ihat the trials will open in February, and thev may Inst six months or possibly a year. Although the tribuni is a military one, lucre is provision f ov civil judges, and, if his nomination is accepted. Mr. Justice Norlhcroft will go as a Judge

of the Supreme Court of New Zealand and no: as an officer of the New Zealand Army, in which he served in both world wars. Mr. Quiiiiam, who has been nominated as an associate prosecutor, will go to Tokyo, if accepted, with tire rank of brigadier. His rank in the Second World War was colonel.

The question of the attitude to be adopted by the New Zealand Government toward Japanese war criminals who were connected with atrocities against personnel from the Dominion has been taken up by various branches of the Returned Services Association. In a reply received by the Christchurch branch, Ihe Prime Minister, Mr. Fraser, said that inquiries were being made concerning certain atrocities committed by Japanese against New Zealanders. If it: were possible to establish the identity of the offenders and to capture them, suitable arrangements would be made for the New Zealand Government to be identified with the trial and prosecution of the alleged perpetrators of these crimes.

Apart from many individual cases of Japanese brutality, the most callous outrage committed against New Zealanders occurred on the Belio islet in the Tarawa aloll on October 15, 1942. when the Japanese garrison murdered 17 New Zealanders. Ten of the victims came from the Auckland Province.