4 OCTOBER 1946, Page 4

Now, I suppose, the rather drab and extremely German court-

house at Nuremberg will revert to its normal uies. The white- helmeted guards will go, the ear-phones be put in store for some international conference, and the prison-cells turned over to lesser occupants. One question of some importanCe remains unanswered, or if the answer has been given I have never heard it. What is to happen to the unique collection of captured German documents that played so large a part in the conviction of several of the prisoners— initialled as many of Them are by Hitler, Keitel, Jodi and other Generals and Admirals? Like everything at Nuremberg, they were technically in the custody of the Americans, but clearly no one Allied nation has a special title to them. They might properly be deposited with the International Court of Justice, or at the headquarters of the United Nations, or, if the future destiny of Germany were sufficiently certain, somewhere in Berlin. On the whole, this last possibility can be ruled out. But an authoritative statement about the documents would be timely. And in any case, I hope one or two of them will be reproduced not only in the official report of the trial, but in the unofficial, or semi-official, and more popular volume with whose preparation Mr. Wheeler-Bennett and Mr. Patrick Dean have been entrusted.

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