PUNISHING ENEMY-CRIMES.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VIII, Issue 300, 21 November 1918, Page 3

PUNISHING ENEMY-CRIMES.

! POWER LN INTERNATIONAL LAW. i I The British Attorney-General, Sir [ Frederick Smith, speaking at Liverpool recently, dwelt on the possibility of punishing German crimes. “ I have given close attention,” said the Attor- $ ney-General, “ to the subject of international law, and 1 tell you plainly that there is in international law abundant warrant for the punishment, both in their persons am! in their purses, of proved and identified criminals. It has ‘•iot been becoming, until the hope of victory was recently formed upon the! events in the field, to talk of what we J should.do v hen victory came. That those persons who can be identified with universally admitted acts of out-j rage are to escape with impunity is a ' view of the situation which I certainly j should find it difficult to accept. j “ We are told it will not be possible 1< for Germany to pay indemnities, al-• though -he herself is demanding £3OO,- p 'MK'.OOO from the Bolsheviks. There are : great asset-, in Germany. It is a mat-| ter which is irrelevant from one point! of view as to whether those assets are 1 pledged by the German Government to i rhe citizens of that country who have supplied the money for the war to be j earrie'! on. The relevant answer on y the subject io the German Government is. ‘ You have pillaged and destroyed j, Belgium ami ravaged France, and your first: obligation is to compensate Belgium j and then France, and then pay those who put up the monev to enable you to, commit those outrages.' ” 1