Manawatu Evening Standard FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1945 COURT OF WORLD JUSTICE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 305, 23 November 1945, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1945 COURT OF WORLD JUSTICE.

Foe the. first time in history a nation’s leaders are before a Rig'll Court of World Justice. In the former ' temple of the Nazi cult at Nuremberg the trial has commenced—unique in the history of jurisprudence—of ■ twenty Nazis who ruled Germany and plotted to rule the world. Twenty-four were originally indicted, but Ley, the notorious Labour Front leader, could not face the ordeal and died by his own hand, Krupp and Kaltenbrunner are too ill to appear, and Bormann has not yet been discovered. The world’s regret is that the architect .of Nazi Gerinany and the greatest of all the plotters is not in the dock at Nuremberg. It is most likely that Hitler met an inglorious death os the Russians swept into Berlin, and all liis scheming and lying plans tumbled about his ears. But after Hitler and Bormann all the principal Nazis are on trial. A grim indictment was read to the accused, although they had had it for a month in which to prepare their defence. In four sections it was read by the representatives of the chief Allies. The English translation runs .to no fewer than 25,000 words, indicting these fiends of a despotic rule of terrible crimes against humanity. In brief they are accused of conspiring for 25 years to rule the world, and in pursuit of that ambition they fostered the theory of German racial superiority, violated international law, engaged in total war, and murdered and tortured many millions. At the head of the indictment Hitler is given the prpminence he so well earned. “In 1921,” it reads, “Adolf Hitler became Supreme Leader, or Fuehrer, of the Nazi Party, the central core of the common plan of conspiracy.”

The trial will drag' a weary course. That has been made evident in the opening proceedings which require remarkable attention to detail and direction so that the use of three languages will not become a farce. The accused are being defended by counsel of their own choice and every wile will be used to defeat the course of justice. Shorn of the pomp and vanity they displayed as they strutted across the European stage grinding German people into slavery for Nazism’s triumph and widening the bounds of dominion through Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia as the first great step in their scheme Qf world conquest, these 20 Nazis were described, as a drab lot as they took their seats in the Court. The thin-veneer of polish has been swept from them to reveal the true type of creature that ruled Germany, impassivity, solemnity, defiance, and nervousness revealing the prisoners’ attitudes as they faced their Judges, representatives of the nations they sought to enslave but who triumphed in freedom’s cause to destroy the most fiendish'cult the world may ever know; However ' much their counsel may . challenge the legality of the proceedings, no matter Hess’s pose of loss of memory, or of Goering’s'.foibles'; the world knows that these men are guilty of every crime charged against them, and awaits the performance of justice that will bring them- the punishment they merit, a grim warning to future aggressors who choose the sword to put their ambitions and evil schemes into practice.