Show Will dill a Tri Trial l of the War Criminals Criminals' Be of Unconditional Surrender They h y Didn't Hang Kaiser KaiserS Kaiser'S S In 1918 but Will Adolf Be as Lucky By ELMO SCOTT WATSON Released d by Western Newspaper Union sur- sur surrender surrender UNCONDITIONAL render is the watch watch- watchword Watchword word of the Allies and after that has been brought about the Axis leaders who plunged the world into war will willbe willbe be placed upon trial for the c crimes imes against humanity which they and their followers have committed Such is the promise of President President dent Roosevelt and Prime Min Mm- Ester Churchill and it is' is not likely like like- ly Jy that there will be any objection objection tion to that program from Jo- Jo Joseph Joseph seph Stalin and Generalissimo Chiang Kai Certainly if the people of Poland France Belgium Holland Norway Denmark Greece and Czecho- Czecho CzechoSlovakia CzechoSlovakia Slovakia have anything to say about it Hitler Mussolini Hirohito Hiro- Hiro Hirohito hito and their fellow international international gangsters will not escape punishment as did Kaiser Wil- Wil Wilhelm Wilhelm helm a quarter of a century ago Back in 1917 18 hang the kaiser was a popular slogan in the Allied countries even after the German monarch had abdicated and found refuge in fn Holland That slogan helped continue Prime Minister Lloyd George in power in the British elections of November 1918 and that the promise in it might be made good was indicated by Article of the Treaty of Versailles which was signed a few months later The article said The Allied and Associated Powers publicly arraign Wil- Wil Wilhelm Wilhelm helm II H of former former- formerly ly German emperor for su- su supreme supreme preme offenses against international international morality and the sanctity of treaties The Allied and Associated Pow Powers s will address a request to th the government of the Netherlands for the surrender surrender der to them of the emperor ex-emperor cx In order that he be may be put on trial Accordingly it was proposed that a tribunal consisting of five judges one each from the United States Great Britain France Italy and Japan should be organized to serve as a court of justice for the arch arch- criminal and in January 1920 a formal demand was made upon Hol- Hol Holland Holand land for his surrender But imme- imme diat ly the plan struck a snag For Forthe Forthe the Dutch government announced that it was not a signatory to the Versailles treaty therefore not bound by its terms and moreover its national honor forbade the sur sur- surrender render of the r royal yal refugee Expressing the fear that the kai kai- kaiser ser might flee from Holland the Allied governments repealed their demand But Queen Wilhelmina and her ministers announced that this fear was groundless since by royal decree the kaiser would be restrict restrict- restricted ed to a certain section of Utrecht and forbidden to leave it Warning the Dutch government that the re- re responsibility is now that of the Neth- Neth Netherlands erlands the Allies left the matter there and so the Prussian war lord retired to his wood chopping at where he lived to see an Austrian painter house revive his old dream of world domination and Ger man aggression plunge the world into another holocaust The kaiser however was not the thet t y z rii 6 s sr r Napoleon at st. st Helena J Jw w E y yI I t k C Von Hindenburg and Von Their Ludendorf-Their names headed the o German war criminals of only German the vic vic- victorious victorious Allies had marked for pun pun- Another article in the Ver- Ver Versailles sailles treaty stipulated that the German government recognizes the right of the Allied powers to bring before military tribunals persons ac- ac accused accused of having committed acts in violation of the laws and customs of war The German govern govern- government government ment shall hand Aver to the Allied powers all persons accused of such offenses A list of names which included in- in included almost all of the military and political leaders of Germany during the war was prepared in accord accord- accordance accordance ance with this article The publication 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 ad the new rulers of that country pleaded with the Allies not to force them to hand handover handover over these war criminals declaring M k BPS A vy-t vy 4 k J 1 a F KAISER WILHELM II H that it mean the overthrow of the government and the resultant chaos Farcical Trials In response to this plea the Allied governments c cut t 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 thata a court in Leipzig went through the motions of staging n 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 lar largely ely in- in indifferent indifferent different to the idea of retribution As a climax to the whole farcical affair the outstanding war crim- crim criminal criminal 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 therise therise I rise of Adolf So So the war criminals section of the Versailles treaty remained as the only dead letter in it until this same made the others dead letter also by tearing up the whole treaty and hurling it in the faces of Germanys Germany's conquerors Will the war criminals of 1939 get away with it the same way that those of 1914 did Will Schick Schick- emulate the kaiser and find sanctuary in some neutral coun- coun country country try The list of such possible havens is small Sweden indeed Switzerland Portugal Spain and Turkey and it is doubtful if any of these would welcome the arch crim ilal igal of all history The present Fas- Fas cist minded of Argen government government- Argentina tina might might-if he could get across the Atlantic either cither by boat U-boat or air plane But that is a remote possibility so it looks as though the Aus Austrian trian painter house has little chance chanc d of living to a ripe ripe-if dishonored old 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 01 St. St Helena After his defeat at Wa Wa- Waterloo he surrendered to o the captain of the British war man Bellero phon and threw himself upon the mercy of the prince regent who lat lat- later er became King George IV Napo Napo- Napoleon Napoleon leon believed that he would be al- al allowed allowed lowed to settle down in some comfortable com com- comfortable little place in England and great was great vas his dismay and indignation tion when he learned that his cap cap- captors 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 willingto to accommodate him just as mil mil- millions lions today would be glad to accommodate Adolf if he expressed a preference for death to exile or imprisonment However delegates from Great Britain Rus- Rus Russia Russia sia Austria and Prussia who formed the Convention of Paris in 1815 to pass upon Napoleons Napoleon's war guilt over over- overruled overruled ruled the wish of the British prime I minister and the exile to St. St Helena was the result On that cheerless I little island in fn the South Atlantic he spent the next six years as a mili mili- military tary prisoner with the rank of a Brit Brit- British British ish general out of e employment Under instructions from the British government he was treated as Gen Napoleon Bonaparte not as the em em- emperor of France France-a fact that was particularly galling to the ego of a aman man who had dreamed of world conquest One of the horrors of civil war Is the bitterness of feeling between I citizens of the same country which frequently transcends the bitterness bitterness' I Ithe the people of one nation feel toward foreigners with whom they are at I war During the 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 orthe the Hessian mercenaries Similarly four years of war var which began in 1861 engendered animosities that were to linger for generations I If many Southerners hated that ape in the White House there were an equal large number umber of North North- Northerners Northerners erners whose fa- fa favorite favorite song was a promise to hang r r Jeff Davis to a sour apple tree a For the North which could adr ad- ad admire r d mire the military genius bt bf a Lee Leeor J or a Stonewall rr Jackson apparently apparently could not Jefferson Davis concede that that arch traitor Jefferson Davis had a single admirable trait So their wrath for all rebels was concen on the head of the president of the Confederacy lcy After Lees 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 indig through the influence of certain cera tain revengeful members of the radical wing of the Republican party who were determined to bring him to trial for his war guilt Finally after two years Davis was released with Horace Greeley and other Northerners who had beer beel his bitterest bit bit- terest enemies during the war pro viding 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 |