~

War Criminals
lust Be Punished

By D. N. PRITT, K.C.

HERE is confusion about the punishment of war criminals. Most people are determined
- to see it carried through; but objections are being raised by various people—not all of

Biem friends or former appeasers of fascism—which should be met and answered.

Slinary citizen that this should
» done.

‘What then are the objections,
© i what are these objections
rth? To avoid confusion in an-
fering this question, we must
fin by getting clear as to what
‘not involved.

e

{ the first place, these pro-
'posals have nothing to do with
parations, that is, compensation
* damage directly or indirectly
ased by warlike operations.
t does not even overlap the
estion whether the individuals
fio are guilty, as principals or
s2z0mplices, of such acts as the
birder, torture or enslavement of
ilians or prisoners of war, of
sit or wanton destruction of
aperty, should have their
> mes established before the
surts and meet in their own
rsons the punishment they have
irned.

‘Secondly, the arguments over
Piat is called “Vansittartism”
* tually important as they are,

2 not in this picture. Whether
= be true or untrue that wars

2 to be attributed to some spe-
‘il German poison, so that mon-
‘oly capitalism may be acquitted
id even the best of German so-
Pilists cannot be entrusted with
2 government of their country
| preference to a horde of “Am-
'tters.” the case for punishing
e individual war criminal re-
ains the same.
And now, what are the ob-
ctions? Those that appeal to the
Zid lawyer, who sees difficul-
2s as to what sort of courts can
> set up, what law is to be ap-
jed, what procedure — and, in
articular, what rules of evidence
shall be foilowed, need not de-
in us long.

Aji difficulties of that class are
fainly surmountable. Lord Si-
on, orthodox and experienced
iough a lawyer, has stated this
mite clearly in the House of
sords. All that is essential is
iat you shall set your prisoners
ito the dock before a regular
(= special -court of competent
"idges, that you shall accuse them
“i acts which are punishable by
nie law of ciyilized States, and
‘iat you should have the evidence
) prove your charges.
: 5

'F these technical objections dis-
5; appear. what others remain?
' Among those suggested are:
"hat this course has never been
allowed before; that if it were
sow adopted it would be felt to
€ outside the “rules of the
ame”; and even that, because the
Titish have a tendency to rally
"a sentiment to the side of the
feated. the enforcement of such
policy might create such sym-
jathy for the people accused, and
or Germans and Japanese and
ther enemies generally, that we
hould in the end be hampered

ainst whose citizens they have offended
ey would be suitably punished.
The British, American and Soviet governments have all, at the request of the exiled
jvernments of most of the occupied countries of Europe, declared it their definite policy
| try such criminals, and to proceed at once with the investigation and recording of the
jailable evidence in particular cases. And it surely accords with the sense of justice of the

What, to begin with, are the essential features of the proposals? They are, roughly, that
ose of our enemies who are guilty of war crimes — the leading gangsters who organize
"em, the minor posses under whose command they are carried out,’and the actual perpe-
ntors of the crimes—should be put on trial at the end of the war, or earlier Gf they are
lught earlier). They would be tried by the courts of the countries in whose territory or
, or before special inter-Allied courts. If found guilty

UAL TATA

OLEACEAE TTT

in tarrying out the severe meas-
ures necessary te ensure that the
defeated@fascists do not start up
a third world war.

All these objections, I suggest,
show a complete misunderstand-
ing of the nature of the war.

Even though the trial of war

criminals has neyer been followed
before, what will be the real
effect of following it now? Sure-
ly to demonstrate that we all, gov-
ernments and people alike, un-
derstand that this war is unlike
any previous war, that the fascist
system utterly corrupts and
makes savages of those who ac-
tively serve it, and that the con-
science of civilized man will not
tolerate that the individual per-
petrators of such savageries shall
escape their personal responsibili-

_ties.

What could be healthier than
that? There is no question of the
“rules of ihe game.”

Wor, surely, is there any pos-
sibility that the proper investiga-
fion and punishment of war
crimes will creete sympathy for
Germans or Japanese or Italian
er Vichy criminals,

There will be no room, in the
circumstances of this war, for re-
actionary elements among the
United Nations to work on pub-
lic sympathy as a device for main-
taining reactionary industrial and
military bosses In power in the
Gefeated countries.

ape prove that Hess is an ac-
complice in these abominable
erimes, and not just the babbling
imbecile that Brendan Bracken
says he is; to make Himmler pay
the penalty of the crimes he has
organized and committed; to hold
Petain responsible for the tor-
tures and humiliations he has
brought upon his fellow-country-
men; to bring to justified pun-
ishment the army officers who
burn civilians alive in hospitals
and organize the systematic
slaughter of Jews; to prove the
guilt and allot the punishment of
the corporals and privates who
rape women or bayonet little
children; these things cannot fail
to give the world a better and

clearer judgment of the degrada-~

tion of fascism.

They will prevent its friends
from telling us after a short in-
terval that “the atrocity stories
were exaggerated, and these fas-
cists are not really so bad.”

The truth is that the.trial of
war criminals will form an im-
portant step in the burial of. fas-
cism and the building of a peace-
ful world. We shail render a
great service to our cause if we
keep our government up to the
mark in this field, too, so that all
the world can see that In our
hearts — and our heads—we are
clear and determined about the
eradication of every trace of fas-
ism,

Continued

Catholic Statement

Gives CGF octane | :

by no means clear for a time that
Communists would not succeed in
their endeavors to infiltrate them-
selves into dominant positions in
the new movement,

For these reasons the bishops
of several dioceses felt it their
duty to warn their flocks against
the dangers that were apparent.
Time has shown, however, that
the CCF has maintained a sincere
and efffective opposition to the
Communists who are even yet
persisting in efforts to be recog-
nized as collaborators.

The situation is now clarified
as regards the CCF and the Com-
munists, though it might be
premature to say it is stabilized.
The CCF has given all the guar-
antees that it could be reasonably
expected to give of no truck or
trade with the Communists.

e

PRES SNe the situation po-

litically it may be said to be
a matter for congratulation that
there is such a party as the-CCF
to attract those voters who, as re-
cent elections haye shown, are
dissatisfied with the older parties
and who, in the absence of the
CCF, might give their support to
the Communists disguised as a
Labor party.

We have said that the state-
ment of the Canadian hierarchy
is a declaration of the political
freedom enjoyed by Catholics.
But it is also a declaration of
social duty. The existing social
order, while not censured as rad-
ically wrong, suffers from serious
evils which must not be regarded
with complacency. The bishops
tell all Catholics, and all who are

in positions of authority, that re-

form and remedy are mandatory. —

There is no endorsement of a
single political party in this dec-
laration and we believe that there
are men of good will in all parties
and differences of opinion are to
be respected, just as sectional
concern for sectional interests is
natural and inevitable, so it
should always be subordinate to
the interest of the community as
a whole.

More than 50 years ago Pope
Leo XIII wrote: “Some remedy
must be found, and found quickly,
for the misery and wretchedness
pressing so heavily and unjustly
on the vast majority of the work-
ing classes.”

In 1937 Pope Pius XI wrote in
the encyclical on atheistic Com-
munism: “The most urgent need
of the present day is, therefore,
the energetic and timely appli-
cation of remedies which will ef-
fectively ward off the catastrophe
that daily srows more threaten-
ing.”

No political party by itself can
brinf the required remedies.
There is no economic panacea.
It is the duty of Catholics to bring
the light of Catholic doctrine and
the strength of Catholic spirit into
social action as individuals, mem-
bers of families, workers, employ-
ers, citizens and as holders of po-
sitions of power and responsi-
bility. And because Catholics by
themselves cannot bring about
the desired social reconstruction
they have the duty of social
apostolate, of making the right
principles known to the mass of
their fellow countrymen.

Soviets Are Grateful
For Medical Aid

The Russian people are fully aware of and deeply appre-
ciate the extent of the medical and other aid given them by
the British labor movement, H. N. Harrison and Arthur Con-
ley, British Trades Union Congress representatives on the
Anglo-Soviet Trade Union Committee, declare in signed. arti-
cles in the current issues of their union newspapers.

“While we were in Moscow last
July (for the third meeting of
the joint committee) we visited
a hospital where we saw bedding,

surgical instruments, ete., being
used that had been supplied by
the Aid to Russia Fund of our
National Council of Labor,’ Har-
rison writes in the Journal, or-
gan of the General and Munici-

Continued

pal Workers Union, of which he
is national organizer. “The pa-
tients and staff were very pleased
with them and very grateful. We
learned that a lot of ihe clothing,
ete., our fund is supplying is be-
ing used for the inhabitants of
towns and villages that are being
retaken from the Germans.”

The Kootenays
A\re Living A\gain

placed too high a penalty cost on
smelting.

Here, then, is one of the big
reasons for development of a peo-
ple’s movement in the interior
that will oppose such monopoly-
control. That it wil] be supported
widely is a foregone conclusion,
for CM&S is hated not only
by workers but small mine own-
ers, business men, small store-
keepers, all of whom have felt
the heavy hand of Biaylock at
one time or another.

The fact that the Kootenays
have been dominated by Consoli-
dated for so-many years means
that when the break occurs, it

will come all the faster and take
effect more powerfully. And that
such a movement will develop as
a result of organization of the
Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers
Union is certain.

The hardrock miners of the in-
terior, the key to the labor pic-
ture, are taking the splendid tra-
ditions of the past and building
on them new achievements. The
Kootenays are coming back into
ihe: main stream of the labor
movement, this time with a better
policy, a betier program, a better
leadership, and a better vision of
the future. Sa

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