BITTER CONTROVERSY ON PROPOSED TRIAL OF GERMAN GENERALS

Grey River Argus, 30 August 1948, Page 5

BITTER CONTROVERSY ON PROPOSED TRIAL OF GERMAN GENERALS

Alleged Inhuman Treatment (Received August 29, 8.55 p.m.) LONDON, August 28. The British Government’s decision to put on trial as alleged war criminals, the German Marshals, Von Brauchitsch, Von Runstedt and Von Manstein, and General Strauss, has met with adverse comment. “The Times” says these German Army leaders have been held far too long in captivity without trial. Technical difficulties, if there were any, may explain such dilatory methods; they cannot excuse them. The “Manchester Guardian” said it would be lamentable if this should prove to be a case where the Foreign Office, for some tortuous diplomatic reason, had overriden the rational, humane instincts of the British Army, of the British authorities in Germany, and of the ordinary British people. . The “Daily Telegraph” reported that the German Generals will be defended by German counsel of their own choice, or by German counsel allocated to them by the British authorities, who will give counsel time to prepare the Generals’ defences. COMPLETE BLACKOUT The officers concerned are being held in the British zone. They will be given the status of civilians so that they are no longer prisoners of war, and then told that it is proposed to bring them to trial. The Prime Minister (Mr. Attlee) is reported to have considered special reports upon allegations that the three German Field-marshals. Von Brauchitsch, Von Rundstedt and Von Mansteoin, are being held in solitary confinement in Germanv. and are being inhumanely treated by the British military authorities there. The Berlin correspondent of the "Daily Mail” states that a complete security black-out has been imposed upon all information bearing uoon the three marshals, and that in view of these instructions it is now almost impossible to obtain any news about them. The corresoondent states that he has been' informed by the wife of Von Manstein, that, she is allowed to see her husband for only one hour each day, and always with an officer present in ; the iTiom. She is not allowed to kiss her husband or to touch him. Her husband is compelled to sleen in a cell with the lights burning all night and he has guards always with him. The correspondent states that Von Brauchitsch recently staged a hunger strike as a protest against his detention, but after thirty-six hours he became so weak that he abandoned it at the request.of the camp commandant.