Evening star., 1934-01-05

While Americans recognize the fair
the defendants in the Reichstag fire
case, there is persistent belief that
the proceedings were intended as a
NaZi defense, and that the Hitler ad-
ministration was involved in the plot,
as suggested before the trial was held.
The Young Dutchman convicted is be-
lieved to have legal rights which ought
not to have been violated by retroac-
tive law. such as was applied.
The trial is called fantastic" by the
Birmingham Age-Herald. which en-
phasizes the fact that the law had to
be made retroactive IN violation of a
principle honored in all civilized coun-
tries That paper feels that "Nazi
dictatorship plays such tricks before
high heaven as make the angels weep" "
In further comments on the proceed
ings. the Age makes the state
ment: The Nazi regime can point
with pride to what looks like proof OF
the independence of German judiciary
even when Hitler rules. But it can
not help being disturbed by the impl-
cations Of the decision. Though the
court failed to say anything on the
subject, it forced upon thoughtful peo-
pie, within and without Germany, the
assurance that the fire was the result
of Nazi conspiracy to further Nazl
political purposes"
Creating criminals by means Of
retroactive laws is a challenging charge
to meet" declares the Hartford Times,
with the statement that the American
Constitution expressly forbidS Congress
to pass ex post facto laws, and the idea
is as old as civilized jurisprudence,
and the Times concludes: An act is
legally criminal only in the sight OF the
laws then existing. The German gov
ernment has played fast and loose with
some of the fundamental rights OF indi-
viduals. Its detention camps are filled
with men who have not been given a
trial, and no legal opportunity is left
open to them for an appeal. But tina.
is domestic situation with which other
nations cannot easily interfere. The
Van der Lubbe case is different. Hol-
land has raised fundamental point OF
human justice"
Commenting on the charge that
Communists plotted the crime, the San
Francisco Chronicle says that nobody
who knows the Communist leaders Of
Europe would attribute to them a coup
so stupid" The Rutland Herald sees
in the stated facts a story equivalent
to fiction, and holds that 'if this had
appeared In book by one of the au-
tors who specialize in such intrigue.
we might well call it a wild flight of
the imagination.
THE verdict is probably one of the
most unsatisfactory ever handed down
anywhere" in the judgment of the
Cincinnati Times-Star, which offers
the review of the case: Although no
convincing evidence was presented
against the four Communist defend
ants, and they were perforce acquitted.
the mass of the German people still
believe them somehow implicated in
the crime On the other hand, nobody
believes that the Dutchman, Van der
Lubbe, was solely responsible for 1t.
The burning of the Reichstag was a
crime comparable in magnitude and
difficulty to, say, the burning of the
Capitol at Washington during ses-
sion of Congress. An incendiary OF
genius might have started a blaze
there, but no man, unaided, could
have carried into the building many
truckloads of inflammable material
and set a conflagration which ragged
for several days. AS the testimony re-
vealed this crime called for eXcep-
tional ingenuity, careful planning, a
high degree OF organization and
extraordinary resources. That an OBJ