Washington Post 24 February 1948 War Crime Trial; Buffalo Courier Express 24 February 1948 Unanswered Questions-Page 1

WASHINGTON POST 2k February 19U® WAR GRIME TRIALS It is a most remarkable condemnation of American judicial proc¬ esses which Judge Charles F. Wennerstrum delivered at the conclusion of a recent trial of eight German generals at Nuernberg — the more re¬ markable since Judge Wennerstrum himself presided at the trial. He has come to the conclusion that victors are not qualified to judge the vanquished. By whom else, after a great world war, is justice to be effected and international law to be established? He accused the prosecution of bias, vindictiveness and ambition for convictions. In all criminal proceedings, we suppose, the prosecution, representing as it does the forces of law and order, may be said to have a bias in their behalf and an eagerness to convict those it considers criminal. It is the business of the court to see to it that the rights of the accused are respected. , If .the German generals appearing before Judge Wennerstrum' s tribunal failed in any way to get a fair trial, it it on his own shoulders that the prime responsibility must rest. "If I had known seven months ago what I know today," Judge Wenner- strum is quoted as having declared, "I would never have come here." What a pity he was incapable of a little foresight! Everything he says he learned at Nuernberg should have been plain to him before he left Iowa. He knew he was to preside over an American court estab¬ lished in conformity with the London agreement as a subsidiary of the international tribunal; that this court was to try conquered Germans for war crimes as defined in the Nuernberg precedents. If, as now appears to be the case, he thought this an improper procedure, he would have done a great deal better to stay at home. His intemperate blast did grave injury to Gen. Telford Taylor, who has conducted the prosecution with dignity, honor and intelligence, and to the whole developing pattern of international justice. As General Taylor observed, it was "subversive of the interests and policies of the United States and will be used by all the worst elements in Germany against the best." BUFFALO COURIER EXPRESS 2k February ±9k& UNANSWERED QUESTIONS An Associated Press dispatch from Frankfurt, Germany, character¬ ized as "unprecedented" the denunciation by Brig. Gen. Telford Taylor, chief United States prosecutor of war crimes in Germany, of Judge Charles F. Wennerstrum of Iowa, who presided over the Nuernberg trials of eleven German generals which resulted, last week, in the sentencing of Field Marshal Wilhelm List and eight other German commanders to prison terms and the acquittal of two generals. The term, "unprecedented," might be applied even more justifiably to Judge Wennerstrum' s action in giving an interview to the corres¬ pondent of the Chicago Tribune in which he said, in effect, that he and his two associates, Judges Edward F. Carter of Nebraska and George Burke of Michigan had failed to give List and his co-defendants a fair trial. True, Wennerstrum tried to put the blame on the United States Army prosecutors; but if what Judge Wennerstrum said is true, the blame rests primarily on himself as presiding judge and secondarily on his two colleagues. Wennerstrum' s curious statements to Hal Foust, Chicago Tribune correspondent, give rise to five questions which, we believe, trans¬ cend in importance the issue of hovf the Army Public Relations Office in Frankfurt got hold of Foust's story in time to issue a simultaneous (More)