THE KAISER'S ESCAPE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 278, 20 August 1919, Page 8

THE KAISER'S ESCAPE

* NO TRIAL FOR CRIMINAL OFFENCE

i MR. MASSEY 1 OBJECTS

. Tho preparations tot are being ,n)Mle f ■ for tho trial of the Kaiser wore men- •' Honed; by... tho Prime Minister (Right Pon.'W X 'Mnssey) at tho New Zealand 6lub luncheon 1 yesterday. Mr. }[ftssej was one of the members of the War Crimes Commission. set up by the Peace Conference for tho' purpose of gatfhoring evidonoe. against enemy',oriminate, and he- was chairman of one of tho sub-oom-mitteei}' set by that commission. He bad an opportunity of getting first-hand infonmation, some of the eUomyV, violations of the laws of war aii'd humanity. ' . ■ V'The most. important, question before . that commission was whether <y not tho "mem who had committed oftriios fnd had transgressed thq ordjuw' law of war rshonld bfe punished m ' whether the •punishment should be commensurate <. ''with the offence. We considered the ' question, of tho pmaishjieint of the iftaiser. You have seen that the Kaiser "is to be tried'. I hope he will be pun- . ish ed if to deserves it.;, -Evwr ■■jam charged -with an offence is entitled to 'ft faiT tainl, and I am not one to demand •the punishment of any man unless no gets a. fair trial. . . ... "Tho Kaiser ,js going to je tried by an international tribunal. We were not able to reach unanimity on the commission. It is extraordinary what differences of opinion there are on theso :matters. There tfere several ipen on 'that commission, representatiyes of .great • countries, who thought that the beiid or 'Sio State, King, President, or Jvaiser, diQuld be regarded as above the toy ■ and shonld not be pnnished for any.oii fence. I cannot hold with that viow. ' fl WittiV that if the bead of the State m J guilty of a criminal offence and if M ftrea&s tho law, then lie is responsible to the law. We Have a King of our own. I cannot imagine King- Georgb heinf guilty of any criminal offence, lio ,« not that sort of man. He is one of .the best men I bwe ever.met. I speaK ! of what I know. ... "Piles of documents were submitted ;to us. I wish I had time to read yon '■the record of orimes contained in tne report of that commission. There are • crunes' enumerated there—many of them ■—of which .I never believed any human , to -be capable, crimes • worthy ot devils in hell, committed by . 6erl ?™® 'and more particularly by. their allies 'the Tnrits and Bulgarians. It is scaros- ; ly possible to print the record'of =nmffl against men, women and ohiidren the ,-jfiod horrible things possible to think of ' I &ay. that if ever it is possible to pUnish the orimiiials they, shonld be ■' to the Kaiser, warcoom- . 'mended' that an intermfaonal tabling i-tihbuld be of t iree J 'Judge? from each of the five Great-Pow- ' errand that a panel of fiv? from the . [fifteen Judges shouldi. ■" 'recommended that, he ehoo,d_ be j 3^' , ; 'for a criminal offence or oripiinal or'fenoaa and should be punished if he were ftomd guilty. That was our recommendation, but it was not agreed to. I can form a pretty good idea of the pressure that was brought ,to bear and of why • Britain- liad. to give way. Now hore is ■the .point.. The Ifoiser is not to 1m tried for'a 'criminal offencs. It will not w possible to hang him, shoot him. orjut tint in prieoni He is going to be tried for'a .moral offeuco against the tews ot humanity, and I think that he npay be interned, but it will not'be pfsible to ■ nhinish' him .for tho crimes whioh he ]* supposed to have committed. Yet w " ; proT)osed. to .punish other orinunals. ( "We -recommended that "heads of. Stares and oil subordinates, if alleged to be jniJlty' of 'crimes, should'be tried by international tribunal. Thiat is not done under the present proposals. What is intended now is that if the countnes concerned have Rot hold of persons supposed to be guilty of crimea, they may try thoee pennons and punish them. We Lave got a number of alleged war crimir.ks iinder lock and key at tbe t present \ time, and they will bo tried and if guilty they will be punished. TV'iat I like least about tho matter is that we are going „to punish some subordinates, but we are Teeing to allow the Kaiser to go ffee, even ff lieVie'gmity of offence?/ I "don'tJike it. I. don't think that the /■right thing, is being done. I tun not Te:fle«ting. upon tho heads of_ tHie; British -Empire, for I know that this must have •.been forced upon them." Mr. Massey added that some people 'might,be indined at the prteent time to eay to the war criminals, 'Go,'and ?in no more.". But that did not sean to him'.ro 'be tho right thing to do. The lawa 'of nations and of humanity ought to be upheld. If the people wiho had done brutal and lawless things in the lust of power and conquest.were to es(..capo jaunishment, the nations might see 'tftiher'unscrupulous, ambitious war lords attempt to succeed where the Germans "flmd.just failed. Punishment ought to fall upon the heads of the guilty in order that the lessons of the war might not b» forgotten in the years to come.