The Wilmington morning star., 1945-08-21
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright. 1915, by King Features Syndicatel

BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
copyright, 1915, by King Features Syndicate)
NEW YORK.-President Truman has an
nounced the end OF the political truce between
the republicans and the democrats and that
goes to show what smart fellow I amt
IF Vol had asked me | would have said that
his side had been making politics r. ht along
and that the propaganda from the communist
unions. of the CLIO, which I have been receiv-
ing hasn't sounded non-political to me. Nor
neither has, it seemed to me rnat the treat
ment of Admiral Husband E. Kimmel and
n ajor General Walter Short, even under Mr..
Truman's own presidency, has been non-po.
Iitical On the contrary, my op- mon mas been
that Mr. Truman has been covering up his
late chief, Franklin D. Roosevelt, at the ex-
pe.4se of two good American citizens who have
publicly demanded lair trial with right
to present their own witnesses and to cross
examine those of the prosecution so that the
nation may learn whether they were guilty OF
derelction, incompetence, neglect, treason or
anyth ng else and, if not who was guilty,
and OF what.
1t may be remembered that on August %,
last year, Admiral Kinmel wrote Mr.. Tru-
man a letter in which he said, Your in
nuendo that General Short and I were not on
speaking terms is not true. Your statements
alleging failure to cooperate and coordinate
our efforts are equally false
Admiral Kimmel is still in the United States
Navy, on the retired list, and is subject to
punishment for calling his COMMANDMENTS
Chic a liar unless he can prove his case.
1t is true that Mr.. Truman was not president
then, but the admiral has not retracted
word of that letter so it still goes as to
President Truman. He didn't resort to any
such grease as you are misinformed' or
Ha accused Truman of
falsehood and the case is no longer mere
hot potato that can be cooled off by time.
but historic issue of political persecution
or historic failure on the part of the two Of
ficers.
For more than two years. the Navy and
War Departments refused to try these men.
the excuse being that such trial would
hamper, in the performance Of combat and
administrative duties, active officers in the
war against Japan whose personal presence
and testimony would be required, and that
secret information of value to the japanese
might be divulged to them. Those excuses
have now vanished. Meanwhile, unable to
stand off the demand entirely, the depart
ments, by order of Congress, held inqu.r ies
and indicated Kimmel and Short to the ex-
tent of saying that they were charged with
no offenses which would justify trials by
courts martial. Nevertheless, the departments
suppressed the testimony, the evidence and
the findings, and insisted that further investi-
cations were necessary and were being made.
These men, under American law, are pre-
sumed to be innocent, but they were tried
by a kangaroo court named by President
Roosevelt soon after Pearl Harbor and that
court, designated "committee,' under the
presidency of Owen ]. Roberts, then justice
of the Supreme Court, since resigned, per-
formed service Of great temporary advan-
tage to Mr.. Roosevelt, who was its client as
we'll as its founder, n inflicted grievous
wrong on the two officers. 1t ''conv:cted'
them of 'derelction of duty after assuring
them that they were not on trial, as of course
they could not be in that forum because it
had no more standing than so many gossips
in saloon and no formal charges had been
filed to which they could make answer.
'Dereliction of duty meant to the Ameri-
can people, for period of time, that Kimnel
and Short were responsible for a disaster
which COST 5000 Immediately and God only
knows how many more lives in the subse-
quent war to drive the Japs back from the
positions which this preliminary stroke en-
abed them to seize. 1t meant that they were
responsible for the destruction or prolonged
elimination from the fight of eight battleships
and other vessels in the greatest naval dis
in accepting the assignment in the first place
Under orders which confined its inquiry to
possible derelictons or errors of judgment by
Army and Navy personnel but, by their
wording, precluded consideration of any pos
sibility that civilian officers of the govern
ment in Washington could have been primari-
ly or solely at fault.
forgotten but extremely important item
in this case is a press association dispatch
from Boston on Nov. "a, 1941, 10 days before
Pearl Harbor in which Senator Claude Pep
per, of Florida, of the most Influential
political sergeants of l1r Roosevelt, was
quoted as saying: eve only waiting for
Japan to cross line before we start shoot
ing Il do not know exactly where that line
is and I am not sure the President knows
where it is. But when they cross it we will
start shooting The actual declaration of war
is legal technically and such technicalit' es
are held in allegiance as long as those
brigand5 continue II force"
In view of the Intimacy between the Presi-
dent and Pepper at the time the Japanese
ambassador in Washington would have been
derelict in his duty if he failed to advise
his government that the United States appar-
emily was planning to start war with
sneak punch. Kimmel and Short were not adj
vsed of any such intention and they were
restricted, down to the last hour, by orders
forbidding them to take any protective and
Inrecautionarv measures beyond those of the
No. alert which, in the words OF the Roberts