TOKIO RAIDERS “PUNISHED”

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 22, 21 October 1942, Page 5

TOKIO RAIDERS “PUNISHED”

Enemy’s Principles Of Humanity STRANGE ASSERTION (By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright.) NEW YORK, October 19. Tokio radio said that American airmen who were captured in the United States bombing raid on Tokio in April have been punished in accordance with military law for their failure to observe the principles of humanity. The radio added that Japan will execute or severely punish all airmen taken prisoner who are found to have committed cruel or inhuman acts in attacks on Japanese or Japanese-held territory. “During an investigation the American airmen who had been captured said that it was proper for them to deliberately bomb Japanese hospitals, schools and civilian homes. The army therefore has severely dealt -with these Americans,” declared Tokio radio. Tokio claimed that bombs landed on a school and hospital during the raid. The official Japanese news agency earlier quoted a spokesman in Tokio for the statement that Americans found guilty of “inhuman conduct during the raid” would be sentenced to death or severely punished by courtmartial. All Got Back. At the time of the raid the Japanese claimed to have brought down nine American bombers, but BrigadierGeneral Doolittle, who led the raid, said that though some of the American planes were damaged, they all got back. In Washington today, Mr. Hull, the Secretary of State, referring to the spokesman’s reported statement, said it was most tempting to comment on the Japanese threats, but thought he would await more official information about the possible source of the report. DEATH OR CAPTIVITY Suggested Fate For Axis Leaders (Received October 20, 10 p.m.) NEW YORK, October 19. “We can never sit down at a peace conference with Herr Hitler, Signor Mussolini, or the Emperor Hirohito, declared the mayor of New York, Mr. La Guardia, today. “Therefore, we will have to execute 4 these three or put them in captivity,” he said. TRY HESS, RUSSIAN PAPER URGES LONDON, October 19. The immediate trial of Rudolf Hess, the deputy Fuehrer, is urged by the Moscow “Pravda” in a leader on the punishment of the German war criminals. _ , „ “It is necessary,” says “Pravda, “to determine Hess’s present capacity. Is he a criminal liable to be tried and punished, or is he 'a plenipotentiary of Hitler in England, enjoying extraterritorial rights? To imagine Hess is safe from judgment by a people's tribunal for the duration of the war is to close one’s eyes to the crimes of one of Hitler’s most blood-thirsty criminals.” . , t . ~ Planning for the punishment of the German war criminals, the Polish Cabinet has issued a special decree attaching criminal responsibility for crimes committed in Poland after August ol» 1939. Actions contravening international law and harmful to the Polish State, institutions, and firms are to be punished by imprisonment or death, if such actions caused death, special suffering, deportation, or transfer of populations, imprisonment of individuals or general danger to humans, compulsory military service in foreign armies, or destruction or damage to property of national value. Additional Dutch hostages have been shot for acts of sabotage committed at the weekend, says a message from Zurich. The entire coastal zone of south Holland, north Holland, and Zeeland has been declared a fortified area in which the population must be prcparedi for evacuation, the message adds.