The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1920-02-02
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\ THE OPINION OF OTHERS.
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THERE LET HIM BE!


Liberalism prevails in the Netherlands. That Is
the Interpretation of the Dutch Governments re-
fusal to turn William Hohenzolem over to the row.
ers for trial 1t is quite logical 1t is lndlsputaply
lawful r. is in accord with ancient precedent.
There are few if any nations which have not a'
some time asserted and insisted upon the rlght OF
asylum for political offenders and for fugitive bel
ligerents This right has been maintained even
against the demands of the country from which the
fugitive fed Of course it is much stronger against
any third Powers or group of Powers. If the Ger
man Government should demand Hohenzollerns
extradition different case would be presented in
which the Netherlands might yield. 1t could do so
without the slightest inconsistency with its refusal
in the present case
The Dutch Government is entirely logical in its
reply to the Powers citation Of the Treaty OF Ver-
sailles as providing for the arragnment and trial Oh
Hohenzolern. That provision is nothing to It, BE-
cause it was not and is not party to the Treaty.
It is not only logical but it is also decidedly caus-
tic-by implication-in it's denotement of the cir
cumstances in which it would be willing to surren-
der fugitives Down to that point it refers to the
"Powers"; then it refers to the "Society of Ma
tions." It would have been impossible more neatly
more deftly, or more effectively, to rebuke the
Powers for discrediting, as they have done' their
own League of Nations by ignoring it and making
the demand not in its name but in the name OF
Just few of the Powers allied together IN the
old fashioned way The Dutch Government says IN
effect to them, if we read between the lines, Get
YOUR much-vaunted League of Nations in working
order, and we may do business with it; but until
then. nothing doing" To that it will be nightly
difficult for any League members to make reply.
There will, however, be irrepressible regret at
this triumph of liberalism and formel legality 1t
will be strange reflection upon the organized
mower of civilization that while some hundreds OF
his underlngs are to be brought to trial and prob
ably punished for obeying his orders to them the
man who is by common consent regarded as the
most abominable criminal the world has ever known
is to 20 free There will be regret that the Gov
ernment at The Hague did not have the vislon' the
imagination, the conception of equity, to perceive
that this case far transcended all technical bounds
and literal conditions and was to be treated as quite
sui generis, SO that;to surrender Hohenzollern
would not be in the least degree inconsistent with
the otherwise invariable practice of nviolable asy-
lum Had it acted upon that enlightened principle,
it would not have impaired it's honor, but would
have added to it new lustre and distinction.
Since however, the decision is made, and is not
likely to be reconsidered, the world will not lind 1t
difficult to accept it with equanmity, if not indeed
with measure of relief. 1t is impossible to set
forth too strongly The guilt of the Amerongen fu-
gitive 1t would be impossible to infict upon him
any punishment at all commensurate with his des-
erts Nor could any testimony verdict or sentence
strengthen the worlds conviction of his turpitude,
or make more execrable the status in history to
which he is doomed. Since, then, any punishment
would be grossly inadequate, it matters little from
that point of view whether any at all is imposed
upon him. save that which he already suffers in his
humiliation, his baffled rage, his unspeakable sense
of ignominy and degradation. If he goes otherwise
unpunished, let this be the record read and known
of all the world, that he escaped because of the
very enormity of his crimes, which placed him be-
yond the power of man to deal with fittngly.
For him no longer, and never again, to be able
to lord it vver his fellows again to strut and
pose before the adulating gaze of fear-strcken
multitudes, never again to exut in being one
Whose word million men,
Whose nod can hurl them on to death,
for him there can be no deeper hell than that;
nothing more poignantly to make him cry and to
make him feel (Which way fly is He'll; myself am
Help There let him be!-Harveys Weekly.