WAR CRIMINALS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 December 1943, Page 2

WAR CRIMINALS

QUESTION OF SURRENDER & PUNISHMENT DEBATE IN HOUSE OF LORDS. DISTINCTION BETWEEN LEADERS & AGENTS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, December 7. Lord Vansittart in the House of Lords asked the Government if it had taken or intended to take any steps to ensure that no German criminal shall find asylum in any neutral country and what steps were being taken by the Government to identify the' war criminals already in their pc|Ver or within reach. He said he gathered that guarded replies had been received from neutral countries regarding requests from this country that they should not harbour war criminals. There were only two points to discuss the number of war criminals and how to get them. For the future of Europe it was important to liquidate and root out criminals of all categories without class distinction. Lord Maugham said it would be a mistake to try and collect hundreds of thousands of war criminals and execute them. It would be more to the point to restore the injuries done to countries which had suffered at the hands of the Germans and to restore x ; them at the expense of the Germans, ’’ no matter what the consequences of this expenditure might cost the German people. The Archbishop of York said: “If people like Hitler and Himmler manage to escape to some neutral country while their subordinates suffer at home that would be a monstrous outrage against justice.” He suggested that the names of the criminals should be broadcast time after time to the countries where these meh were living. ‘‘lf we adopted Lord Vansittart’s policy,” he added, “it would mean that for years we should have to shoot the people of Germany, and our people in England could not stand such indiscriminate executions.”

Lord Simon, replying for the Government, said it was important to remember the distinction between the inner ring of political leaders who must take full responsibility for the awful barbarities committed and the much larger number of people who had been their agents. He added: “There must be no mass executions of great numbers of nameless people merely because there have been frightful cases of mass executions on the other side.” The mistake made after the last war was in waiting till the peace treaty was signed before calling for the surrender of war criminals.