TRIALS OF WAR CRIMINALS

Southland Times, Issue 25796, 6 October 1945, Page 5

TRIALS OF WAR CRIMINALS

Legislation Welcome In Australia

(Special Correspondent, N.Z.P.A.)

(Rec. 7.15 p.m.) SYDNEY, October 5. The Federal Government War Crimes Bill giving power to an Australian court to sentence to death war criminals guilty of atrocities and outrages has been warmly welcomed by Australians. It should meet the public demand echoed by returning prisoners of war that merited punishment must be inflicted for the brutalities which caused the deaths of thousands of Australian servicemen. Returning Australian officers from prisoner of war camps have compiled their own lists of war criminals in south-east Asia, and many of these are expected to be brought to the trials. The Bill, which passed all stages in both Houses of Parliament in one day without amendment, provides that Japanese sentenced to death for atrocities may be shot or hanged. Speaking in the House of Representatives, Mr Cameron (Liberal, South Australia) urged that Japanese convicted by Australian military tribunals should be hanged and not given the easy way out before a firing squad. He said that those condemned to capital punishment should be executed at the scenes of their crimes.

The Sydney Morning Herald, in welcoming the Bill, believes that to punish war criminals is only the beginning of bringing home to the Japanese the lessons of their defeat and says that the regeneration of Japan can come about only through “the re-education” of the Japanese people and the development and establishment in power of democratic political elements among them following a thorough purging of the old regime.