PUNISHMENT OF EX-KAISER.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 August 1919, Page 4

PUNISHMENT OF EX-KAISER.

MR. MASSEY'S VIEWS.

By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night.

Speaking at a luncheon given to him and Sir Joseph Ward by the New Zealand Club, Mr. Massey, referring to the Crimes Cpmmission, of whicii he was a member/ said the commission did its work seriously and earnestly. Its chief work was to decide whether those responsible for the crimes and cruelties of the war should be punished. His idea was that the Kaiser should be punished, but there were men on the commission who thought the head of the State should not be punished. He could not accept that view. He wished they could see the record of crimes by the Germans and their allies, which could only be described as being "worthy of the devils in hell." Such crimes should not go unpunished. The recommendation was that the German Kaiser should be tried for criminal offences by a panel of five Judges out of fifteen selected by the Allied Powers, but the result was that, if found guilty, it would not be possible to hang him or shoot him or put him in prison. He was to be tried for an offence against the laws of humanity. It was quite poisible he would be interned, but it was not possible to adequately punish him for the crimes which he was said to have committed. The point he liked least in this connection was this: Wc would punish some of his subordinates as on a criminal charge, but we would allow the Kaiser to go free if he was found guilty of a great criminal offence.