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Show ' a Trial of the 'War Criminals' Be erinath of 'Unconditional Surrender"9 j.vn.VW, , esstvs srMi - - man aggression plunge the world into another holocaust The kaiser, however, was not the only German leader whom the victorious vic-torious Allies had marked for punishment. pun-ishment. Another article in the Versailles Ver-sailles treaty stipulated that "the German government recognizes the right of the Allied powers to bring before military tribunals persons accused ac-cused of having committed acts in violation of the laws and customs of war . . . The German government govern-ment shall hand over to the Allied powers all persons accused of such offenses." A list of 900 names, which included in-cluded almost all of the military and political leaders of Germany during the war, was prepared in accordance accord-ance with this article. The publication publica-tion of this list, which was headed by the names of Field Marshal Von Hindenburg and General Ludendorf, stirred up a violent protest among the people of Germany and the new rulers of that country pleaded with the Allies not to force them to hand ftHang Kaiser' ) L Will Adolf L Lucky? "7t WATSON rnVwspaP" Union. 3XD1TI0NAL sur- j'er" is the watch-rd watch-rd o the Allies I :M has been put, the Axis lead-lunged lead-lunged the world LUbe placed upon ie crimes against which they and .ers have commit- ie promise of Pres-ievelt Pres-ievelt and Prime hurchill and it is that there will be on to that program ,h Stalin and Gen-Chiang Gen-Chiang Kai-shek, the people of Po-ce, Po-ce, Belgium, Hol-wayt Hol-wayt Denmark, i Czechoslovakia angto say about it, issolini, Hirohito Uow international rill not escape pun-5 pun-5 did Kaiser Wil-arter Wil-arter of. a century 17.18 "hang the kaiser" ir ilogan in the Allied en after the German I abdicated and found blland. That slogan inue Prime Minister i in power in the British member, 1918, and that in it might be made :cated by Article 227 of Versailles, which was k months later. The ied snd Associated jblicly arraign Wil-nobenzollern, Wil-nobenzollern, former-i former-i emperor, for su-nsei su-nsei against interna-ility interna-ility and the sanctity i. The Allied and Powers will address lo the government of lands for the surren-m surren-m of the ex-emperor nl he may be put on y it was proposed that a isisting of five judges, em the United States, in, France, Italy and d be organized to serve :t Justice for the archill arch-ill in January, 1920, a :r.d was made upon Hol-surrender. Hol-surrender. But Imme-ilan Imme-ilan struck a snag. For government announced not a signatory to the treaty, therefore not i terms and, moreover, honor forbade the sur-e sur-e royal refugee. f the fear that the kai-ee kai-ee from Holland, the nments repeated their Queen Wilhelmina and rs announced that this oundless since by royal taiser would be restrict-"ain restrict-"ain section of Utrecht en to leave it. Warning ivernment that "the re's re-'s now that of the Neth-'e Neth-'e Allies left the matter o the Prussian war-lord Wj wood-chopping at r he lived to see an se-painter revive his old jfld-domination and Ger- r l Turkey-and it is doubtful if any of these would welcome the arch-criminal of all history. The present Fascist-minded government of Argentina Argen-tina might if he could get across the Atlantic, either by U-boat or airplane. air-plane. But that is a remote possibility, possi-bility, so it looks as though the Austrian Aus-trian house-painter has little chance of living to a ripe if dishonored old age in exile. Perhaps, like Napoleon, he would exclaim "I prefer death." That was what the French dictator said when told that the British government was sending him to the barren rock of St. Helena. After his defeat at Waterloo, Wa-terloo, he surrendered to the captain of the British man-o'-war, Bellero-phon, Bellero-phon, and threw himself upon the mercy of the prince regent, who later lat-er became King George IV. Napoleon Napo-leon believed that he would be allowed al-lowed to settle down in some comfortable com-fortable little place in England and great was his dismay and indignation indigna-tion when he learned that his captors cap-tors had other plans for him. A Dictator in Exile. It was then that he declared his preference for death and it is said that Lord Liverpool, the British prime minister, was quite willing to accommodate him, just as millions mil-lions today would be glad to accommodate accom-modate Adolf Schickelgruber if he expressed a preference for death to exile or imprisonment. However, delegates from Great Britain, Russia, Rus-sia, Austria and Prussia who formed the "Convention of Paris" in 1815 to pass upon Napoleon's war guilt overruled over-ruled the wish of the British prime minister and the exile to St. Helena was the result. On that cheerless little island in the South Atlantic, he spent the next six years as a military mili-tary prisoner with the rank of a British Brit-ish general "out of employment." Under instructions from the British government, he was treated as Gen. Napoleon Bonaparte, not as the emperor em-peror of France. One of the horrors of civil war is the bitterness of feeling between citizens of the same country which frequently transcends the bitterness the people of one nation feel toward "foreigners" with whom they are at war. During the Revolution many Patriots had a greater hatred for their former friends and neighbors, who were Loyalists, or Tories, than they had for the British soldiers or the Hessian mercenaries. Similarly four years of war which began in 1861 engendered animosities that were to linger for generations. If many Southerners hated "that ape in the White House." there were an equal large number of North-erners North-erners whose fa- sM vorite song was a m.. jf,l promise to "hang Jp?i)v r4 Jeff Davis to a W-yMf sour apple tree. fyi$ For the North, Jj.f'J which could ad- t-fy xVj. mire the military ' 'fl genius of a Lee yL,-' fl or a "Stonewall" 'jtf r;..M Jackson, appar-ently appar-ently could not Jefferson Davis concede that "that archtraitor," Jefferson Davis, had a single admirable trait. So their wrath for all "rebels" was concen-trated concen-trated on the head of the president of the Confederacy. After Lee's surrender Davis, with members of his cabinet, fled south and he was captured in Georgia. He was imprisoned in Fortress Monroe and subjected to unnecessary indignities indig-nities through the influence of cer-tain cer-tain revengeful members of the radical wing of the Republican party who were determined to bring him I trial for his "war guilt." Finally, after two years, Davis was pleased with Horace Greeley and other Northerners, who had been his bitterest bit-terest enemies during the war. pro-tiding pro-tiding his bail bond. His health broken by his prison experience and the public outcry for revenge having died down, no further effort was made to prosecute him. j KAISER WILIIELM II over these war criminals, declaring that it would mean the overthrow of the government and the resultant chaos. Farcical Trials. In response to this plea, the Allied governments cut the list down to 45 persons and permitted the Germans to conduct the trials. The result was a foregone conclusion. The Germans stalled as long as possible on the matter and it was not until three years after the war ended that a court in Leipzig went through the motions of staging a trial. All of the war criminals were freed either because their "innocence was proved" or because "their misdeeds were not covered by German law." By this time the Allies were no longer allied and public sentiment among their peoples was largely indifferent in-different to the idea of retribution. As a climax to the whole farcical affair, the outstanding "war criminal," crim-inal," Von Hindenburg, was elected president of the republic of Germany and the weakness of this hard-bitten old warrior as the head of a civil government paved the way for the rise of Adolf Schickelgruber. So the "war criminals" section of the Versailles treaty remained as the only dead letter in it until this same Schickelgruber made the others dead letter also by tearing up the whole treaty and hurling it in the faces of Germany's conquerors Will the "war criminals oi mm "get away with it" the same way that those of 1914 did? Will Schick-elgruber Schick-elgruber emulate the kaiser and find sanctuary in some "neutral- country' coun-try' The list of such possible havens is small indeed-Sweden Switzerland. Portugal. Spain and St. Helena |