§ Major Wilkesasked the Attorney-General whether, in view of the ruling given at the Belsen trial that being a member of a concentration camp staff does not constitute a war crime, he will state what machinery of justice exists to deal with such personnel; under what code and of what crime they will be charged; and whether the prosecution of such people will be undertaken speedily.
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§ Mr. LawsonI have been asked to reply. I have not yet had an opportunity to check the accuracy of the Press report on this point, but any such statement by the Judge Advocate was an expression of his own opinion and cannot be regarded as a ruling binding on any subsequent court. The machinery for dealing with the persons referred to depends on action by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, which is being asked to declare that the S.A., S.S., Gestapo and other bodies are criminal organisations. If that is done members of those organisations, which include most of the guards on concentration camp staffs, can be tried before international military or occupational courts. The exact procedure for these trials is now under consideration.