RETRIBUTION
Snt,—Mr. Harold Nicolson in his article in your issue of January ii5th says: "Retribution there must be, in order to convince the Axis countries, &c." He then outlines a policy of negation, including the possibility that Hitler, the arch-monster of evil, may meet the same mild fate as William II. - Yet Mr. Churchill and Mr. Eden, Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Cordell Hull have openly declared for just retribution, and the Lord Chancellor has announced the appointment of an inter-Allied Commission to marshal evidence against the war criminals.
Mr. Nicolson refers to the retribution farce which followed the last war and seems to argue from that that nothing effective can be done to bring the arch-villains in Germany and elsewhere to justice when the United Nations defeat Germany. I am not familiar with the ten-point plan he summarises, but most of it is the same as the resolution of the War Crimes Commission (an unofficial body presided over by M. Marcel de Baer) unanimously adopted by the London International Assembly on October 12th, 1942, with the specific approval of Lord Cecil, Lord Lytton, and Lord Maugham.
The main points of this resolution were:
1. As soon as possible a Protocol to be agreed between the United Nations (a) defining what acts shalt' be punishable as " war crimes," and in accordance with what law they shall be tried ; (b) setting up, wherever necessary, international machinery for prosecution and punishment in respect of such " war crimes," to take. effect immediately on cessation of hostilities, and providing for the international co-operation required to make retribution by the national tribunals effective.
The purpose of this proposed protocol would be to announce to the enemy, before hostilities cease, that an international law already exists ! under which such monstrous outrages as the deportation, starvation and wholesale killing of helpless millions, the killing of hostages and the like involve suitable penalties for those responsible, i.e., those at the top who direct such enormities and those who carry them out. " The really guilty parties will be the first to escape," writes Mr. Nicolson. But where? Surely neutral asylum is not to be allowed for such as Hitler, Hinunler, and the rest of the gang who have seized power and waxed immensely rich? It would take years to alter the extradition laws, and the German, who when he is beaten will follow the familiar process of whining and proclaiming his innocence, would at once indignantly protest
s against any ex-post facto laws. There are, however, legitimate methods, if arranged and announced beforehand, which will prevent such escapes to a neutral asylum.
There are, of course, M. Stalin, and the Poles, the Czechs, the Serbs, v and the Greeks, the Dutch, the Belgians and the Norwegians who will s be entitled to have a say. Doubtless in the first convulsion many of the : chief offenders will meet their fate at the hands of the survivors of those whom they have so cruelly wronged, or of right-thinking Germans them- : selves. But there will be a large residue of war criminals, and in any case lynch law is no. proper substitute for the Grand Assize whose findings should echo through the corridors of time as a lesson to would-be aggressors in the future.
When one realises the non possumus attitude of Mr. Nicolson and other influential persons, it is a consolation to know that the ordinary man-in-the-street in this country has made up his mind that so far as is humanly possible condign punishment shall be administered. One of the most important needs is to•sct up the machinery beforehand,, and not to wait until the sudden German collapse.—Yours, &c.,
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