No casuistry can explain or condone this doctrine of hell.
Every convention, every agreement reached at the Hague to which the German Empire set its seal, was framed in order tJ defeat the appalling logic of terrorism which the Kaiser adopted. It is to be hoped that no desire for personal vengeance against the Kaiser, natural though it may be, will be allowed to derogate from the real importance of bringing the Kaiser to trial. In future the knowledge that the Kaiser was held responsible for violating the law of nations will be a tremendous reinforcement to the authority of that law, and a signal warning to any ruler who thinks of following in the Kaiser's footsteps. This is the real justification for the trial of the Kaiser. For the same reason it is essential that it should never be open to any critic to pretend that the Kaiser was brought to book out of spite. The Tribunal before which he Is brought must be above the suspicion of partisanship.
