TRIAL OF HESS

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 249, 22 October 1942, Page 5

TRIAL OF HESS

NO SOVIET REQUEST STATEMENT BY MR EDEN STRGNG FEELING IN RUSSIA.

P.A. Gable.

LONDON, Oct. 21.

There was no truth in recent reports that the Soviet Government had suggested to Britain that Hess should be brought to trial immediately, declared the Foreign Secretary, Mr Eden, in a statement on the punishment of war criminals. There was no question of giving Hess any kind of privileged status, and there never would be. He was treated as a prisoner of war. Asked by an Independent member whether Hess "lives in exactly the same status of eornfort or discomfort as the ordinary prisoner of war," Mr Eden replied: "Yes, sir. That is his status." "The sooner some British statesman makes a statement on the Hess case the better," says the Daily Telegraph's Moscow correspondent. "Unless Pravda's editorial demand for the immediate trial of I-Iess meets a healthy British reaetion the Moscow campaign for immediate punishment of German war criminals will be continued. "Pravda's article probably merely caused irritation in London," the correspondent adds, "but Russian party ■politieal opinion must be taken into aceount. A possible explanation of the Moscow campaign is that it is intended to key up anti-German feeling in Britain. "Nothing has so far calmed the uneasiness the Hess affair caused in Russia," the writer declares. "Russian public opinion will not be eased until the Hess ineident is liquidated or removed from British jurisdiction. It is useless to tell the Russians that Hess is held in one of Britain's nastiest g'aols." STRONG COMMENT BY TIMES. The Times in a leading article says: "No reason appears to have been advaneed why action against ITess, who was a prisoner in Britain before Russia was a belligerent, should be pressed at present to such a step contrary to the British viewpoint that proeeedings against war criminals should be based on an examination of evidence which will hardly 'become available during the war and could only serve as a pretext for a campaign of frightfulness against British prisoners in Axis hands. These reasons make it im~ possible to accede to the Russian proposals. It is safe to say that nothing at present would be heard of Hess if Britain and American armies were fighting in Europe.

"The present. controversy has few merits, but it is important because it raises the broad issue of confidence between the Allies," 'The Times continues. "If there was full Anglo-Russian confidence it would be impossible for a responsible Russian newspaper to ask whether Hess is regarded as a German envoy in 'England enjoying" immunity, or imagine that whatever is done or not done to Hess now or hereafter can have the slightest bearing on British determination to uproot Hitlerism. Npne of the United Nations can justly reproach its ■partners with weakness of spirit or slackening of resolution. "Confidence," says The Times, "will be established only when the conviction exists on both sides that the war against Hitler is one war, not two, and that it can be planned as one war only through the unified machinery of grand strategy. The difference of opinion on strategy between Russia and the Allies would not have assumed the present dimensions except for Russian suspicions that the 'forces of Britain are not V/holly behind the Anglo-Russian allianee.' Such forces can constitute only a tiny minority without influence on official thought or policy and it should not be difficult for Britain by word and deed to demonstrate their insignificance.' Berlin radio, eommenting on the Russian demand for the immediate trial of Hess, said: "If this criminal plan is earried out Germany will take the most drastic reprisals."