Evening star., 1946-08-14
Letters to The Star
+ Another View of Lichheld
SUGGESTS Exaeseration

| 1t is curious how We Americans. in
get that when we raise mighty army
of six millions and fight our way
through France and Germany. It Is a
cross-section of our Nation from top
! to bottom. They are not all heroes,
but include some of our noblest and
best and many good. sturdy GIs, and
at the bottom a sediment of criminals
many OF whom are sifted out and get
back as prisoners or rejected men for
various reasons to depots or base camps
like Lichfeld. Now. many of these are
very clever scamps and have artistic
and appealing tales to tell to any news
paperman in search of good copy. And
as liars are plentiful. any man who has
had well-deserved bump from a hard
boiled sergeant can get testimony for
the asking to support his tale of woe
/ was much interested in a letter
from a chaplain, who had been on duty
at Lichheld, which was published in
The Sunday Star of August A.: Capt.
William l. Comfort Of Dayton, Ohio. 1t
ago by medical officer who recently
had returned from service in England
and Germany. I asked him about the
talk which was appearing abundantly
In the papers about tortures and cruel
ties inflicted on prisoners at Lichfield.
He said that it happened that he could
give me impressions received at first
ha ho
there to investigate such complaints.
He said the board was kept waiting
nearly an hour before they could see
Col. Kilian. When he came in, he ex-
planned that he had been tied up in a
troublesome matter, which was to trv
to get air transport to New York for
one of his men who had received a
cable saying that his wife was very
i'll and not expected to live The colonel
had succeeded in arranging this and
was In high good humor He seemed
pleased at the visit of the board and
gave them every facility for their in
vestigation. Our conversation was in
terrupted at this point, SO my friend
did not go into details, but I under
stood that the conclusions of the board
were much like those OF Chaplain Com
fort
1t is not an unkind criticism of the
fourth estate to remember that it diff
fers in its point Of view from the judi
cial profession, and the younger men
are keen to get good copy and cannot
give dose of truth serum, if there
were such thing. to each transgressor
of the law of military discipline who
gladly embraces any opportunity to tell
his woes to the public J.R.K.
Editors Note. The completion Of
the Lichfleld trials, of course. will be
the best test Of the accuracy of the
news reports)
Cooperation Necessary to Peace
To the Editor OF The Star:
To one hoping for peace on earth in
our time, the Paris parley is becoming
more hopeless day by day
Instead of demonstrating the utmost
In craftsmanship, the delegates are act
ing like bunch of spoiled brats. Only
the zaniest would expect a lasting peace
out Of that mess. The nearest thing to
craftsmanship was Belgium's Paul Henri
Spaak's castigation of the Big Four.
1t read like Jefferson's indictment of
England In our Declaration of Inde-
pendence.
We never will see peace based on
power politics. Neither will it come so
long as any nation can block proceed
ings with a veto. Instead of co-opera-
ton, the Little -Four are jockeying for
power and position for the next war
How can we trust Russia when she con-
tinues under an absolute dictatorship
behind whose strict curtain of censor
ship we know practically nothing of
what she Is doing? How can Russia
trust us when we have and keep the
secret of the atom bomb and continue
conscription and other warlike efforts?
| The world cannot work for peace and
war at the same time Peace never
will come while we hold an olive branch
in one hand and an atom bomb in the
other.
Probably the most important item
in our Constitution is the provision that
no State should dominate any other
State. The little State of Delaware has
just as many votes in our Senate as
the huge State of Texas and can only
be overruled by a majority vote of that
body. We have no moral right to die
tate to Belgium. Neither has Russia
such right to dominate Iran. A two
thirds majority vote in the United Ma
tions should be binding on all alike,
regardless of size, population, creed or
color. The veto should go and CO.
operation become the watch word. Un-
less the Peace Conference and the Unit
ed Nations can work to this end, then
the dream of peace on earth is just
as vapid as a smoke screen.
r. BENTLEY THOMAS.
Danger From Low Flying