The Field-Marshals' Trial
A debate in the House of Commons on Tuesday revealed impres- sively the weight of opinion existing inside the House as well as outside against the Government's decision to proceed with the prosecution of General von Rundstedt and the two other high German officers who have been detained in this country as prisoners of war since 1945 and are now in a British hospital in Hamburg. General von Brauchitsch was in the same category, but hg has been released by death. It is doubtful whether General von Rundstedt will be in condition to stand trial. Assailed from both sides of the House, notably by soldiers like General Sir George Jeffreys, Brigadier Head and Col. Birch, the obviously unhappy Government spokesman argued that the prolonged delay in bringing the officers to trial was due primarily to the Americana ; that since many of their subordi- nates had been punished for crimes committed under their orders, they, Themselves, ought not to escape ; and that under international agreement if we did not try the men ourselves we should have to hand them over to other States which have branded them as war- criminals. None of this convinces three years after the end of the war. It is certain that an overwhelming majority of the public, as of the House of Commons, is against the Government on this. Even now there is time to turn from what one Labour speaker stigmatised as not only moral indecency but political folly.
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