Omaha daily bee., 1919-05-07
Trial of the Guilty
From the New York Times.

The announcement that the kaiser and those
of his subordinates accused of crimes in the
most criminaly conducted war the modern
world has seen will be placed on trial if treaty
provisions now proposed are adopted will sat-
isfy everyone but the guilty men themselves.
The kaiser is to be tried mot for an offense
against criminal law, but for supreme offense
against international morality and the sanctty
of treaties" Criminal law, it has been held,
could not touch the head of state; but that the
kaiser and his government did commit crime
against the common moral opinion of the world
and against international law no man can deny,
and it would have been monstrous to allow him
to escape punishment altogether.
1t would seem from this language that he
is to be tried solely for the attack upon Bel
gium. William might have been arragned as
principal in the prosecution of officers guilty
of atrocities, for the Germany army would
never have followed out the policy of fright
fulness if he had forbidden it. But for such
offenses as German troops committed in France
and Belgium the only proper penalty is death,
and there are difficulties in the way of bringing
capital charge against the former emperor.
The tribunal WHICH will try him with a view
to indicating the solemn obligations of inter
national undertakings and the validity of inter-
national morality" will fix the punishment and
it may be presumed that some sort of exile or
imprisonment will be voted 1t is doubt
due to the fact that Belgium is the victim for
attacking whom he will be brought to trial that
Belgium has no representative along with the
great powers on the proposed court
For the minor offenders against "the laws
and customs of war;" or those guilty of "crn-
inal acts against the nationals" of the states at
war with Germany; special tribunals of the
states involved are provided. 1t is perhaps
unfortunate that the proposal includes an ex-
PLANTATION that, since the German government
has not provided for punishment of such Of
tenders, the allies must do it themselves. 1t is
notorious that the German government has not
shown any inclination to take this step, which
would have been one of the most convincing
tokens of real change of heart in Germany;
and the language may suggest to the Germans
now that they may be able to avert vengeance
upon the guilty by hurredly announcing their
own determination to institute proceedings
which will end, as in the Fryatt case, with a
complete whitewash of all Germans involved.
The theory Of jurisprudence expressed by the
court which investigated the killing of Captain
Fryatt can be summed up in the assertion that
all things are lawful for Germans and nothing
for anybody else 1t is not to be supposed of
course that the allies would be deceived by any
German proposals to try the offenders at this
late date but there is possibility that the at
tempt at deception might lead to some delay,
and chance to enable Germans guilty of the
most outrageous crimes to pose as martyrs.
How tar justice will be attained in these
minor trials may be doubted, for undoubtedly
many of the most guilty are Dead and most of
the others will probably disappear, with the
connivance of the German government and peo-
pie. There is reason to expect that the
Germans will do more than they are compelled
to do in the production either of defendants or
of evidence, which is one ground for satisfac-
ton that German war prisoners on the western
front are still held. Among them are doubtless
some Of the guilty, and it may be possible to
catch Others. At any rate, it seems that an at
tempt at punishment is to be made, and the
mere attempt ought to go some distance to-
ward vinidcatng the universally accepted
standards Of decency-though whether the
Germans will be impressed remains to be seen.