TRIAL OF HESS DEMANDED

Southland Times, Issue 24882, 23 October 1942, Page 5

TRIAL OF HESS DEMANDED

ISSUE OF CONFIDENCE BETWEEN ALLIES

LONDON, October 21.

The sooner a British statesman makes a statement on the Hess case the better, says the Moscow correspondent of The Daily Telegraph. Unless the editorial in Pravda (a leading Russian newspaper) demanding the immediate trial of Rudolph Hess meets with a healthy British reaction the Moscow campaign for the immediate punishment of the German war criminals will be continued. It is probable that Pravda’s article merely caused irritation in London, but Russian party and political opinion must be taken into account. A possible explanation ot the Moscow campaign is that it is intended to key up anti-German feeling in Britain. Nothing so far has calmed the uneasiness the Hess affair has caused in Russia and Russian public opinion wul not be eased until the Hess incident is liquidated or removed from British jurisdiction. It is useless to tell the Russians that Hess is held in one ot Britain’s nastiest gaols. . The Times, in a leading article says: “No reason appears to have been advanced about why action should be pressed for at present against Hess, who was a prisoner of Britain before Russia became a belligerent. Such a step is contrary to the British viewpoint that the proceedings against the war criminals should be based on the examination of evidence which will hardly become available while the war lasts ana that such proceedings now could only serve as a pretext for a campaign ot frightfulness against British prisoners in Axis hands. These reasons make it impossible to accede to the Russian proposals. RELATIONS OF ALLIES

“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 of its own, but it is important because it raises the broad issue of confidence between the Allies. If there were full confidence between Britain and Russia it would be impossible for a responsible Russian newspaper to ask whether Hess is regarded as a German envoy in England and enjoys such immunity or to imagine that whatever is done or not done to Hess now or hereafter can have the slightest bearing on British determination to uproot Hitlerism. “None of the United Nations can justly reproach its partners with weakness of spirit or slackening of resolution, but confidence will be established only when the conviction exists on both sides, that the war against Hitler is one war, not two wars, and that it is being planned as one war through the unified machinery of grand strategy. “The difference of opinion on strategy between Russia and her Allies would not have assumed its present dimensions had it not been for Russian suspicions that there are ‘forces in Britain not wholly behind the AngloRussian alliance.’ Such forces, however, can constitute only a tiny minority without influence on official thought and policy and it should not be difficult for Britain by word and deed to demonstrate their insignificance.” Berlin radio, commenting on the Russian demand for the immediate trial of Hess, says: “I( this criminal plan is carried out Germany will take more drastic reprisals.”