The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1946-01-18
Trial Of Nazis Historic
Attempt 10 Outlaw War
Defense Attorneys Cooperate to Test Validity
Of Effort to Prove Aggression Is Illegal
instrument of Policy.
BY BAUKHAGE
NetUs Analyst and Commentator.
WNU Service, 1916 Eye Street N. w.,
Washington, D. c.

NUREMBERG, GERMANY. -
CHANGING back across the hours and
days spent in this broken city at
the tremendous effort which has
gone into the presentation of the
American case at the war criminal
trials, one can see with aching clar-
ity the pitiful shortcomings OF hui
man achievement in the spiritual
field as compared to our material
progress.
The very court house is remind
er Of this strange inconsistency OF
civilization. The beautiful renasci-
mento building stands in the midst
of ruins which testify to the almost
unbelievable power of the ma
chimes Of destruction. Among the
statues Of the worlds great law-giv-
ers carved upon its walls is that Of
Hugo Grotius, the father of interna-
tional law, who lived in Holland in
the 18th century. It was he who
laid down the principle that agrees
sive war was illegal by asserting
that there was a difference between
a just war (of self defense) and
an unjust war.
Until now, in the middle Of the
goth century, no major effort has
been made to enforce that princi-
pie. Indeed, the tendency veered
sharply away from that concept and
only today I heard comment with
in short distance of the court room
itself echoing sentiments expressed
in American military circles to the
effect that it was unwise to attempt
to prosecute as criminals the Ger
man military leaders like Doenitz
and Keitel and perhaps Raeder and
Jodl. The argument which is set
forth and which is the heart of the
military leaders case in this trial
was limited at in the words of Jodl
when he made his plea that what
I have done / had to do and I did
it with clear conscience before my
people, my God and the world"
1t was taken then that the military
defense would be that the high Off
GERS merely carried out orders as
the officers of any nation would.
jackson faced that issue squarely
at the very beginning and that is
why he threw his full weight into
the argument that these men, all of
them, participated in conspiracy
to wage an aggressive war. And he
proved it with charts showing the
organization of the Nazi party, how
it interlocked with the state, and
then how each step followed the pre-
ceding one toward a planned goal
Of aggression.
If the Americans win their case,
it will be a great achievement and
one long overdue, for it has taken
nearly three centuries to produce
a concerted effort to write into inter-
national law the concept that ag-
gressive war is just what Grotius
said it was - Illegal and that the
men responsible for planning and
carrying it out were criminals.
There exists universal condemna-
ton of all the separate acts of muir
der, pillage, destruction, enslave-
ment which war produces. jackson
believes that this fact makes con-
domination of the thing that pro-
duces them sound and logical.
1t was very plain that when the
German defense counsel heard
Jackson's speech and later when
they, like the press, were almost
buried under the avalanche of evil
dence in the documents produced,
they did not have a definite plan of
defense to meet the allegations,
either general or specific. i
Trial Conducted /
With Dignity /
Shortly after Jackson's address
learned tn nv S1Irnris. of a rernark