Evening star., 1945-06-07

fore an international military tri-
bunal. 1t is expected to designate
/ its representatives shortly The
| government of the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics, while not yet
committed, has been kept Informed
of our steps and there is no reason
to doubt that it will unite in thu
prosecution. We propose to make
provision for others of the United
Nations to become adherents te
| the agreements"
Outlining the area which the
prosecutions will cover, Justice jack
| son said:
| I'VE will accuse large number OF
individuals and officials who were in
authority in the government, in the
military establishment, including the
general staff, and in the financial,
industrial and economic life of Ger
many, who by all civilized standards
are provable to be common criminals.
I'VE also propose to establish the
criminal character of several volun-
tary organizations which have
played cruel and controlling part
in Subjugatlng the German people
and then their neighbors 1t is not,
of course, suggested that a person
should be judged a criminal merely
because be voted for certain candi-
dates or maintained political afflia-
tions in the sense that we in Amer
lea support political parties.
The organizations which we will
accuse have no resemblance to our
political parties. Organizations such
as the Gestapo and the SIS were di-
rect action units and were recruited
from volunteers accepted only be-
cause of aptitude for and fanatical
devotion to their violent purposes. "
Three Types of Crime.
The American prosecutor speci-
fed three types of crime for those
responsible will be brought to JUS
tice:
l. Atrocities and offenses against
persons or property constituting
violations Of international law, in
cluding the laws, rules and GUS
toms of land and naval warfare.
2. Atrocities and offenses, includ-
ing atrocities and prosecutions on
racial or religious grounds commit
ted since 1888.
3. 1nvasions OF other countries and
initiation of wars of aggression in
violation of international laws or
treaties.
The persons to be reached by
these charges" Justice Jackson ex-
planned, will be determined by the
rule of liability. common to all legal
systems, that all who participate in
the formulation or execution of a
criminal plan involving multiple
crimes are liable for each of the
offenses committed and responsible
for the acts of each other. All are
liable who have incited, ordered,
procured or counseled the commits
sion of such acts or who have taken
what the Moscow declaration de-
scribes as consenting part there
in"
L
"The legal position which the
United States will maintain, being
thus based on the common sense of
justice, is relatively simple and nom
technical" Justice Jackson con-
tinued. I'VE must not permit it to
be complicated or obscured by stereo
legalisms developed in the age of
imperialism to make war respec-
table"
At the outset of his report, Justice
Jackson explained that the major
criminals are those defined by the
Moscow declaration signed by the
late President Roosevelt, Prime Min
lister Churchill and Premier Stain
That declaration specified those
whose offenses have no particular
geographic location and who are tc
be punished by joint decision OF
the governments of the Allies. Be-
cause it does not include localized
cases of any kind, the jurist said, he
attempted to segregate the cases OF
the major criminals from those OF
any other offenders.
| Glasses of Offenses.
Specifying his conception of these
localized cases, the jurist said they
fell into three categories:
The first class comprises offenses
against military personnel of the
United States such, for example
as the killing of American airmer