The Wilmington morning star., 1945-04-02

and evidence collected on war
crimes committed against each ma
ton by its own citizens.
The commission disclosed that
early in its work it urged estab-
lishment of these national offices
to investigate war crimes ag,s nst
citizens or subjects of their own
countries"
When these offices feel case
is reasonably complete. they for
ward summary of it to the
United Nations War Crimes Com
mission or its sub-commission
which examines the information,
the report said.
These bodies, if they believe a
war crime has been committed
and that the information shows
there is, or will be at the time of
trial, sufficient evidence to justi-
fy prosecution, place the name or
descriptions of the individual upon
their lists.
Under this system the commits
sion performs a limited function
and proceeds in a manner some
what similar to a committing mag
istrate. Actual investigation ins
Guiding detection of crimes, inter-
viewing of witnesses and prepare
ton of cases is done by official
agencies best suited to conduct in
vestigations within the national
boundaries and according to the
laws of each country.
This system makes it unneces-
sary for an international commits
sion to assume official police du-
ties of each of the nations or to
attempt to operate within the jur-
isdiction of each country, many OF
which are still fields of actual mil
itary operations.
Under the Moscow declaration,
war criminals who have partlci-
pated in atrocities-arart from ma.
jor criminals, the eeatment OF
whom was reserved for future de.
cisions-will be taken back to the
countries where they committed
their crimes, there to be judged
by the courts of such countries. y
The five lists of war criminals
already prepared have been given
to agencies in the various coun-
tries affected sin order that the
persons may be apprehended and
turned over to the proper nat1ol,
for trial" This is intended, the
commission said, to assure that
criminals fleeing from their own
country eventually would be re-
turned to stand trial at home.
The announcement said that
while the general. rule is for the
commission to receive information
from the National War Crimes Of
fees, the commission itself In
some cases investigates and for
mulates charges against war Grim
inals. This procedure applies to
cases in which, for some reason,
evidence of a war crime is OBJ
tanned by the commission without
it being brought before it by any
national war crimes Office
The United States and Great
Britain have regular members on
the United Nations commission
with Russia sitting in effect as an
observer. Representatives of the
other United Nations contribute
their evidence. Today's announce,
ment constituted the first extend:
ed Qualification of the commits
sion's status.
The commission disclosed that
the advance of Allied armies on all
fronts had brought great in
crease of information about wal
criminals.
Detection and investigation Of
war crimes and submission ct the
cases is much hampered by the
difficulty of obtaining precise III
formation from the Allied terri
tories while they are still occupied
by the enemy" the commission
said. For this reason, during the
first months of its existence the
commission received only a linn
tied amount of information and the
number of cases was small IN
comparison with the atrocities
committed. But as tie forces Of
liberation marched forward, the
number of cases steadily lncreas'
ed and the inflow of Information
considerably increased