The Allied Commission on the Responsibility for the War announced
last Saturday that it approved of " the propriety of instituting prosecutions founded upon the commencement of the war and the violations of Neutral States." Criminal prosecutions would be, technically, "anomalous and unneces- sary," but "the whole conduct of those who planned the war was so outrageous" that the Peace Conference, the Commission thought, might adopt special measures for dealing with them. lia other words, the Conference would be fully justified in bringing the ex-Kaiser to account for his crime in invading neutral Belgium and terrorizing the unhappy people by calculated atrocities. The civilized world came to this conclusion long ago, and is still waiting for the Conference to act. The Commission stated also that it was considering a proposal for "a high Tribunal, which should not in the exercise of its criminal juris- diction be blocked by any consideration of rank," to try offences against the laws of war. After three months the Allied statesmen in Paris have not decided how to try the ex-Kaiser.
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