The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-06-06

MT. Pruess was immediately re- turned to the United States but to my surprise instead of being reproved for making private copies of military secret documents he was placed in honor in the State Department and has been main tained and is now responsible position in San Francisco. These facts are known personally to the Secretary of State.
 RELIGIOUS WAR CRIMES
 During the summer of 1914 I was chairman of a committee of the commission. his commit tee recommended that crimes com- mitted because or race or re- ligion should be treated as war crimes and letter to that effect was sent to the British foreign office on the 29th of May and immediately thereafter to the State Department.
 The British Foreign Office did not answer this letter and eventu- ally Sir Cecil Hurst, chairman of the commission, resigned be- cause of the refusal of the Bri- tish government to answer. In spite of vigorous letters request ing adequate instructions on this subject I received none from the State Department.
 About the close of the sum-
 mer we recommended the set
 ting up of mixed military courts
 and the preparation of an or
 ganization along the lines of
 the FRI to apprehend war crirn-
 inals as soon as any part of
 Germany was occupied. The
 last of these recommendations
 were sent in October. 1944.
 T returned to the United States in December, 1924, and found that nothing had been done about any of them. Tn my opinion, had these recommendations been acted on there would today have beer adequate machinery for the i'm mediate trial of war criminals.
 My protest in December re- suited in the failure of Congress to appropriate $30O0O for the commission and I was told not to return. The State Department, however, did find adequate money to maintain an office in London with an adequate staff of steno- graphers, in fact, everything that was needed except the salary of the commissioner. am o u II ting with allowances to about $600O. I offered to serve free out tcis offer was refused.
 Roosevelt Gave OK
 This failure to appropriate money which prevented my re- turn took place curing the close of the last Congress, which ad- journed December 19, 1944. The State Department was given mo- tice of this fact that I didn't hear of it until the 9th of January. On that day I had an appoint ment with the late President Roosevelt and having been in the United States for more than a month I went to the State De- partment and asked MT. Hack worth if anything new had come up so I could be accurately in- formed when discussing the sub ject with the president. MT. Hack worth told me the literal truth which had come in from London but said nothing about the fail ure of the Congressional appro- priation.
 T then went over to the White House where I discussed the matter with the president, The last words that he said to me were, go back to London as quickly as you can and make yourself chairman of the commis- Sion.'
 That afternoon I went to the Secretary of State expecting simply to shake him by the hand, say goodbye. and return on the next boat. Tn the secretray's of- flee I found Mir Hackworth and was informed that I could not return at all.
 "Wben asked Mir. Hack
 worts, in the presence of the
 Secretary of State, why he'd
 allowed me to go over to the
 White House and discuss this
 matter with the President in
 ignorance of the fact that I