TRIAL OF WAR CRIMINALS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 9 June 1945, Page 3

TRIAL OF WAR CRIMINALS

SURE PUNISHMENT FOR GUILTY URGED Washington, June 7. Supreme Court Judge Robert Jackson, chief United States counsel in the prosecution of war criminals, reporting to President Truman urged sure punishment for the guilty and warned pgainst dilatory tactics in the trial procedure. He said: “The trials should not be regarded in the same light as those under the American system where defence is a matter of constitutional right, but fair hearings for the accused are. of course, required to ensure that we punish only the right men for the right reasons. Failure to try those accused would-mock the dead and make cynics of those living.” Mr Justice Jackson added that he had received an assurance from the War Department that those likely to be accused as war criminals would be kept in close confinement under stern control. Preparations for the ■ 'prosecution of the major war criminals will not impede or delay the trials of other offenders guilty of lesser crimes. Negotiations for an international military tribunal representing Britain, America, France and Russia have not yet been completed but the American cause was being prepared on the assumption that inescapable responsibility rests upon this country to conduct an inquiry, preferably in association with the others, but alone if necessary, into the culpability of those whom there was probable cause to accuse of atrocities and other crimes. Mr Justice Jackson concluded: “The United States intends to bring to trial the whole of the organisations, including Gestapo stormtroopers, and all who had a hand in the Nazi plan, including members of the German General Staff, and all who have committed radical and religious crimes. The guiding principle will be that criminal acts include those things which fundamentaly outrage the conscience. We propose to punish acts regarded as criminal since the time of Cain and have been so written in every civilised code.”