RAEDER’S REQUEST TO BE SHOT

Wanganui Chronicle, 8 October 1946, Page 5

RAEDER’S REQUEST TO BE SHOT

DOES NOT WANT TO DECLINE IN PRISON' London, Oct. 7. Raedei- is petitioning the Allied Control Council to have his sentence of life imprisonment changed to a sentence of death, says Reuter’s Nuremberg correspondent. The petition will arrive in Berlin to-day. “I believe by my personal way of living I deserve a decent death rather than languishing in prison,” said Raeder. “I should regard shooting as a lighter sentence and in the long run it would be for my relatives’ blessed relief. Life, imprisonment could not last long as I am 70 and my powers of bodily resistance are limited. This plea in no way means that I confess to guilt. On the contrary, I believe the judgment contained outstanding errors.” Schacht yesterday remained at a friend's’ apartment in Nuremberg, but Fritsche went walking. He said that nobody recognised him. Both, to-day, must apply to the local police headquarters for identity cards, without which they cannot secure rations. They must, in applying, conform to normal practice in detailing their connection with Nazism. PAPEN STILL IN PRISON

Von Papen, while waiting for the result of his application to live in the Stockenhausen zone, has remained in prison. He has issued a written statement declaring that he was ready to place himself at the disposal of any Allied or German authority who wishes to examine his political record, provided he is allowed to proceed to the British zone.

The Allied Control Council secretariat in Berlin stated it has no knowledge of a plea for clemency by the Pope for Frank. The Associated Press says that Frank's counsel at Nuremberg stated that Cardinal Faulhaber, of Bavaria, had interceded for Frank with the Vatican and had obtained the Pope’s intercession with the Control Council.

“The Tinjes” Prague correspondent says that the Czechoslovak authorities have decided not to claim for von Neurath’s extradition. Czechoslovakia will respect the Nuremberg tribunal's verdict, to which Czech documents contributed. PLEA FOR CLEMENCY

A Pretoria message refjbrts that leading Transvaal Nationalists, J. C. Strydom and General J. G. Kemp, have associated themselves with the appeal for the Dutch Reformed church (the biggest Afrikaans re- . ,ious order) for clemency for those convicted at Nuremberg. Strydom and Kemp stated that they were prompted by human and Christian principles, also by blood ties with the European nations and a desire to achieve a better spirit in Europe. The German State Minister, Dr. Grime, said in Hamburg: “The acquittal of Papen, Schacht and Fritsche also acquits the German people of collective guilt—and if we are not guilty, then we can also be party to a treaty and cannot be forced to accept a dictate.”