GERMANS ON TRIAL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 1 December 1945, Page 5

GERMANS ON TRIAL

KILLING OF NORWEGIANS Oslo, Nov. 30. The first trial of German war criminals Legan yesterday when nine Germans were accused of killing the

- crew of a Norwegian torpedo boat. : Three German officer witnesses testified ■ that the crew should have been treated as prisoners of war but Hitler had personally ordered that all those try- ' ing to land in Norway should be killed. PRISONERS OF WAR ADMISSION BY YAMASHITA Manila, Nov. 30. General Yamashita, under crossexamination, admitted that he did not take any action to prevent the shipment of prisoners of war to Japan in December, 1944, although he knew few ships were getting through the tight American blockade. Earlier testimony showed that 1600’ American prisoners of war were jammed in the holds of the Oryoku Marti and only 300 of them survived repeated bombings, disease and other ravages, to eventually reach Japan. Yamashita said he did not know of jan order from the Supreme Southern Command that prisoners were to be dispatched to Japan. He added: “I considered Japan the safest possible place I for Japanese civilians and American 1 prisoners because of imminent combat.” RULES FOR CONDUCT OF WAR Kwajalein, Nov. 30. Defending ten Japanese officers accused of beheading five American airmen on Mili atoll in February, 1944, Lieut. Nakazato claimed that Japan did not sign or ratify the Geneva Convention and therefore was not bound by any rules of warfare adopted by that body. Nakazato admitted, however, that similar rules for the conduct of war existed in all branches of Japan’s armed services.