Show art eest 0 0 ila U S backs fair trials for axis war criminals president hopes for punishment by process of law for perpetrators of crimes against subdued nations by BAUKHAGE news analyst and commentator service 1343 11 II street NW washington D 0 it was press and radio conference day at the white house we were c crowded around the big desk in the executive office it was hot the president was seated at his desk coatless in a white shirt and black tie lie he was leaning over a typewritten statement before him reading in g it carefully puffing out his cheeks and then blowing out slowly as many people do when they are concentrating it happened to be a day and the answers to the reporters q questions and the exola explanations nations of t two wo long statements filled columns in the papers which you read the next day the first announcement the one which 0 h he was reading over to himself when we came in Is the one which I 1 want to speak about the warning to the he axis perpetrators of acts of atrocity against the civilian peoples of the occupied countries brutal though the theme was ominous aminous though the warning I 1 was suddenly struck by the feeling that here in the midst of hatred and slaughter was an effort to maintain the spirit of decency and humanity the things we are really fighting for the whole intent of the warning was to assure justice even tor for the enemy america was committing itself to the principle that the axis with its policy of making the innocent suffer tor for an others offense such as the shooting of hostages would be punished not by blind vengeance as brutal as the crime it would a avenge but by due process of law gestapo and military officials after the war would be tried in a court in the country where the crimes were committed vengeance As the president was explaining this a reporter asked him if he thought the people in the occupied countries would wait for a trial would they not take the law into their own hands another asked the president if he had heard the seni sen tence said to be circulating in the occupied countries give us a week that the president said was exactly what he hoped would not happen that criminals would be punished after fair trials he pointed to the recent trials of the nazi sabo deurs in washington as an example of this nations nation S insistence on the due pro process c ess of law it seemed gratifying t to 0 me that we were setting out now in the midst of bloodshed and hatred to plan curbs against violation on our part of the very things for which w we e are fighting one man familiar with military law and usage pointed out to me that when and if perpetrators of these crimes ars are tried the defense Is sure to be that the individual officer cannot be held to account tor for merely executing the orders of his superiors it if general X tor for example is arraigned for shooting innocent hostages in paris h he e will answer that he was merely obeying instructions from his superiors in berlin berhn legally my friend said that excuse excuse will not wash military military law requires unquestioning obedience only when the command given is honorable no soldier can be required to perform an act that is contrary to honor if the accused generals conscience revolts against executing people who have committed no offense he is entitled to refuse to obey the order even a german court martial would uphold him in that refusal the german who slaughter jews and poles and czechs czecho cannot take refuge in the plea that their crimes were commanded by hitler or himmler commandos find zest in hit run raids tile the remark of one of the young members of the rangers who took part in the raid on dieppe that in the midst of the fighting they suddenly realized they were having fun fell with a shock on many civilian ears but that sentiment terrifying as it is explains the philosophy of the raider it is not a discovery of anis war it as evi the office ot of information said america was only ankle deep in the war out ot of the americans lost so tar far in the war were civilians in the british empire white only dead 62 civilians native troops chiefly indian civilians included some two million chinese soldiers have been killed between five and ten million civilians I 1 danced in the last war and has been a part ot of all wars this week I 1 was talking with william bird a former foreign correspondent spon dent who is a keen student ot of human nature and who spent some ume time with an all organization in france in the early days of the present war called the groups gro francs these consisted of 0 about two dozen men divided into squads of six each squad was quartered in a single barrack room and each was completely autonomous the members ot of the squad had no contact with the rest of the battalion or even with the members of other similar squads except in the planning and execution of operations involving 9 more than one squad they did not even attend the company mess but cooked their meals on the barrack room stove you know bird explained to me what gives zest to big game hunting Is the element of danger to the huntsman some men will travel half way around the world for the thrill of risking their lives in battle with a tiger or an elephant the same kind of man gets an even bigger thrill from war because man is a deadlier foe than any beast the commandos and the rangers are made up largely of men who thrive on mortal danger the personnel one of the groups gro francs which I 1 came to know bird went on included A champion racing driver the son of a multimillionaire multi millionaire manufacturer who until the war came along was often in the famous salon at deauville where fortunes changed hands nightly on the turn of a card A montmartre hoodlum who had d done one time for stabbing a rival in a fight A bookkeeper from lyons A farm boy from rom normandy A garage mechanic they had no tastes in common except a taste for risking their lives in peace time scarcely any two of them would have spoken to each other but in war they were boon companions and each was ready to die for the others war to them was simply the sub klimest sport in the world chinese Juji jujitsu tatt expert trains american 0 officers so tar far the japanese strategy the strategy of the little attle fellow against the big one has been to hit his op when he isn t looking and that philosophy goes back a long way with japan back to th the e art of jujitsu some say that th this s Is an indigenous japanese institution dating irom from seventh century nippon my friend joseph chiang has another story chiang Is a chinese newspaper man in washington and and he says that jujitsu is chinese the japanese copied our language they copied jujitsu too he says according to chiang it was used first by the peaceful buddhist monks to defend themselves and their monasteries against bandits it is primarily an art of defense although it can make the aggressor break his own neck it if the jujitsu careful the feat consists of clutching or striking such part ot of the body as will make him numb or incapable of resistance its object is not to kill but to incapacitate for the time being that is is a definition by vinanzo ni tobe in in Bu shido the soul of japan what the expert does with his vie vic tim after he has incapacitated him mr does not say any more than mr kurusu mentioned what the mikado was going to do after pearl harbor whether the japanese stole the idea from the chinese or invented it themselves they have made good use of it it has long been part of the training training of the japanese police and is now a part of the training of the japanese soldier no wonder the jap fighter weighs ad an average e of pounds he may be equipped with fanatic zeal but it takes more than that to meet a six foot amerl ameri can or in a hand to hand combat something must be added to put him on equal terms with a heftier adversary B BRIE R 1 E F S by baukhage over a recent typical weekend week end pies were sold at the washing 9 ton union station restaurant classes in spotting enemy planes are now being held in america tor for civilians as well as military you dont have to teach the kids in towns near airplane plants to spot the dif di ferent types of american planes they know them all |