The liberal bourgeoisie’s refusal to prosecute Fascists for their atrocities against Ethiopians was more cringeworthy than you think.
Labour MP, Ben Riley, […] who had seen such Parliamentary evasion practiced previously, was not silenced. Reverting to the main issue, Ethiopia’s exclusion, he declared: “I have not seen the reply, but may I ask whether it is not a fact that all the Allied nations are entitled to be represented on that Commission except Ethiopia, and why is Ethiopia excluded?”
[Speaker for Foreign Affairs, Richard] Law was obliged to say something. Acting on the earlier Foreign Office brief, he lamely began by following the line pursued by Eden and Hall, and declared: “Generally speaking, the policy of the United Nations in this matter is only that those nations which were associated with this matter at the beginning should be members of the Commission.”
Then, doubtless realizing the inadequacy of this answer, he improvised. Seeking, like Hall, to make it appear that the British Government had no wish to exclude Ethiopia, he added, disarmingly, “I can assure the hon. Member […] that the Ethiopian Government were informed at the time these negotiations began and that they offered no comment on them.” Both observations were untrue, but since no one in the House knew this, Law’s “inexactitudes” passed uncorrected.
Law’s reply nevertheless created disquiet on the Opposition benches. Emanuel Shinwell, a prominent Labour member, and committed anti‐fascist, had not forgotten the use of poison‐gas in Ethiopia. He jumped up to ask the Supplementary question:
In view of the use of poison‐gas by the Italians against the Abyssinians, would it not be an act of justice to hand over Italian war criminals to the Ethiopians?
Law tried to stifle this question with four brief words: “That was another war.”
This attempt to discourage discussion provoked a Conservative MP, Kenneth Pickthorn, to ask, reflectively, “Is it part of the war for democracy that the elaboration of this new technique about trying war criminals should be completely accepted without discussion in this House or any effective discussion in this country?”
Law turned this question to his advantage, declaring with exaggeration: “There has been a good deal of discussion at Question time at any rate.”
That was not, however, the end of the story. Two further MPs intervened. The first, Sir Herbert Williams, a Conservative, defended the Government’s position, by questioning the right of Ethiopia to commission membership. He asked, sarcastically, “Can the right hon. Gentleman say on what fronts Ethiopian troops are now engaged in capturing any of these prisoners?”
Reginald Sorensen, a pacifist Labour member, then spoke more philosophically. “In view of the obvious difficulties and embarrassments which this and similar questions are causing,” he demanded, “could we not have some clearer definition as to what exactly a war criminal is and to what extent that should cover not only this campaign but others?”
To these interventions, the Government spokesman vouchsafed no reply.²⁸
(Emphasis added. Click here for trivia.)
President Franklin Roosevelt declared on 21 August that those “committing barbaric crimes” should, at the end of the war, be “subjected to due process of law.”⁵ On 7 October, he announced that the United States would “co‐operate […] in establishing a United Nations Commission for the investigation of war crimes,” and promised that “just and sure punishment” would be meted out to those “responsible for the organized murder of thousands of innocent persons” and “the commission of atrocities violating every tenet of Christian faith.”⁶
No comment.
Click here for events that happened today (October 3).
1892: Sentaro Omori, Axis vice admiral, existed.
1894: Walter Warlimont, Deputy Chief of the Operations Staff of the Third Reich’s Armed Forces High Command, blighted the earth.
1904: Ernst‐Günther Schenck, SS doctor, joined him.
1932: Imperial luxury ocean liner Hikawa Maru departed Kobe for Seattle, her 13th round trip across the Pacific.
1934: The Fascists of Gil Robles entered the Spanish government, sparking four days of violence by the workers in Barcelona and Asturias.
1935: One hundred thousand Fascist troops & Askari mercenaries, headed by Emilio De Bono, invaded Ethiopia from Eritrea (without a formal declaration of war). Coincidentally, Brixia Model 35 light infantry mortars entered service with the Regio Esercito.
1937: Imperial flightcraft sank Chinese torpedo boat Hupeng at Jiangyin.
1939: Hans Frank ordered a ‘ruthless exploitation’ of occupied Poland.
1940: Vichy passed antisemitic laws that excluded Jews from positions in the army, government, commerce, industries, and the press (in other words, Vichy reduced France’s Jews to second‐class citizens). Philippe Pétain, Pierre Laval, Raphaël Alibert, Marcel Peyrouton, Paul Baudouin, Yves Bouthillier, Charles Huntzinger and François Darlan all signed this law.
Meanwhile, the Axis assaulted London, Worcester, Birmingham, and Wellingborough through single‐bomber raids. The Allies suffered damage at the De Havilland aircraft factory at Hatfield, while the Axis lost one Ju 88 bomber to ground‐based antiaircraft fire. Overnight, several small Axis raids targeted London again. Lastly, Prince Kotohito stepped down as the Chief of the IJA’s General Staff.
1941: At about 0001 hours, Axis submarine U‐431 sank Allied ship Hatasu east of Newfoundland, massacring forty humans, and only seven survived. Afterwards at the Berliner Sportpalast in Berlin, the Chancellery announced during a rally that the Third Reich had captured 2,500,000 Soviet prisoners of war, destroyed or captured 22,000 guns, destroyed or captured 18,000 tanks, destroyed 14,500 aircraft, and since 1939 had expanded by an area four times as large as Britain. The Chancellery stressed that the Soviet Union had been broken and would never rise again. Coincidentally in Russia, Panzergruppe 2 of the Armeeguppe Mitte captured Orel 220 miles south‐southwest of Moscow. Elsewhere, the Axis attempted to encircle the Soviet Bryansk Front.
1942: The Axis and the Eastern Allies both incurred heavy losses as the 6.Armee pushed the Soviet 62nd Army back to the Volga River at Stalingrad. Additionally, the first successful A4 test flight reached the altitude of 84.5 kilometers (52.5 miles) at Peenemünde.
1943: The Wehrmacht invaded Kos Island under a heavy air umbrella, and the Axis massacred ninety‐two civilians in Lingiades, Greece.
1944: The Third Reich’s Air Force III/KG 66 at Burg, near Magdeburg reported an inventory of thirteen Mistel unmanned glide bombs, of which tenwere serviceable. Five of the flightcraft took off on this night to attack the bridges at Nijmegen, the Netherlands. The weather conditions were poor and three of the vehicles crashed into the Teutoburger Wald; Oberst Horst Polster, the Staffelkapitän, died as did Unteroffizier Fritz Scheffler and Unteroffizier Paul Barinski. The other pilots could not find the target in the fog and yet another was brought down.
Additionally, the Axis established the first Messerschmitt Me 262 fighter unit at Achmer and Hesepe near Osnabrück under the command of Austrian‐born ace Major Walter Nowotny. The unit had thirty flightcraft distributed among two squadrons and took the task of intercepting USAAF day bomber raids on the heart of the Greater German Reich. As well, an Axis V‐2 rocket hit the Hellesdon Golf Course near Norwich, England at 1950 hours, injuring somebody and damaging a glasshouse, five farm buildings or barns, several haystacks, and one acre of sugar beet. On the other hand, Axis troops evacuated Tiddim, Burma.