POLICIES & PRINCIPLES: Kill Them

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POLICIES & PRINCIPLES

Three Allied statesmen shot their cuffs at the vexed & vexing question of what to do with Hitler, Hirohito & Co.

Anthony Eden was asked in the House of Commons: "Would it be the duty of a British soldier who seeks Hitler to shoot him or try to bring him back alive?" Replied Mr. Eden: "I am very content to leave that to the judgment of any British soldier."

Lord Vansittart, long an exponent of intelligent toughness, observed that nothing could be "more ridiculous than trying major war criminals—those big shots—with cumbrous machinery." To him, the only problems were "the location of the gallows and the length of the drop."

T. V. Soong, China's Foreign Minister, was asked whether U.S. planes should bomb Emperor Hirohito's unbombed palace in Tokyo. Replied Dr. Soong: "By all means. That would make one less embarrassing problem to deal with later."

Up to now, the great precedent for the disposal of defeated conquerors had been Napoleon's exile on St. Helena. In the world of 1945, that solution did not appeal to statesmen who pondered the recent career of Benito Mussolini. Shamed and defeated though he was before he fled to haven with the Nazis in northern Italy, he still retained immense standing and kept Fascism alive in millions of Italian hearts.