WAR GUILT TRIALS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25915, 6 August 1945, Page 6

WAR GUILT TRIALS

COMMENCEMENT NEXT MONTH (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 4. Judge Jackson, chief United States counsel for the prosecution of war criminals, will establish his headquarters at Nuremburg on August 8, according to an American spokesman, who added that the trials of German war criminals, including Field-marshal Goering and Herr von Ribbentrop, were expected to open on September 1.

Officials who have just returned from Potsdam regard the report of the war guilt trials starting at Nuremburg on September 1 as too optimistic, but it is believed that they will begin some time in September. Nuremburg is regarded as the main trial centre, with subsequent hearings held in courts in the various occupation zones.

Nuremburg was chosen, not only because the city ranks high in the history of Nazi terrorism, but because the courthouse is situated within a large compound with tunnel connections between the prison and the court, considerably simplifying the security problem. A joint military tribunal, comprising Britain, America, Russia, and France will try a selected group of Nazi arch-criminals. The group may total 25 to 30, presumably including men like Goering, Ribbentrop, and Hess, and high Gestapo officials and leading Nazi industrialists. Ample press facilities are reported to have been planned. One of the principal difficulties in settling the procedure has been to reconcile the Russian, French, British, and American judicial concepts.