GUILT FOR THE WAR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 84, Issue 180, 2 August 1940, Page 5

GUILT FOR THE WAR

in ie THE FRENCH INQUIRY qP APPEASING Pt BLIC OPINION ?r i31 Received Aug. 1, (5.25 p.m, !r LONDON, July 31. The.Havas (French) news agency • n says:— ie “It is with desire to appease publie opinion, which was upset by the terrible consequences of the war, which the nation did not want, tnat the Petain Government has created a supreme court of justice to establish the responsibility for the war. This may lie in the political, the diplomatic, or the military sphere. The constitutional acts of Marshal Petain and his colleagues abrogate the previous taws which determined the conditions under which the Senate might constitute itself a High Court. “The competence of the New Supreme Court is wider than that or a High Court. The Court can be summoned after a decision by Cabinet. Penalties will not differ from those of common law. There will be no death penalty, which cannot be imposed in France for political crimes. There will be no reprieves and no appeals.” The Berlin official publication "Diplomatische Corresponded” says: “The efforts of the Petain Government to determine the guilt for the war arc evidently misdirected. They should be directed towards finding out wh; French politicians did not respond to the Fuhrer’s repeated 'offeis ot peace. The really war-guilty men who encouraged hate for the Germans and unloosed sadistic treatment of prisoners are not mentioned."