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134406562
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Memorandum for Secretary of State James Byrnes from Samuel Rosenman
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134406562
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document
title
Memorandum for Secretary of State James Byrnes from Samuel Rosenman
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Records of the Naval Aide to the President (Truman Administration)
Berlin Conference Files
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Potsdam Conference, 1945
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134406562
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1945-08-01
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8
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1945
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August 1, 1945
MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE:
Bob Jackson tried to reach you, and when he couldn't, asked for
me, and he discussed with me the present situation on war criminals.
The meeting scheduled for this morning did not take place, because
of the opening of Parliament and the necessity of the Lord Chancellor
being present at the opening. The meeting has been postponed for to-
morrow. I told Bob that anything that was to be done had to be done at
today's meeting.
His views are: 1. That we should refuse emphatically to name
any of the war criminals.
2. That we should not commit ourselves here to
an international tribunal for purposes of trial.
As to the second point, Bob has come to feel very strongly that
it would be better not to have a joint tribunal because of the difficulty
of working with the Russians in a trial. He feels that if the Resians,
however, in London accept the various propositions which we have made,
that he is comm tted to favor a joint tribunal, and does not feel that
he can back out of it merely on the ground that it would be difficult
to get along.
If, however, they do not accede to our suggestions as to defini-
tion of a war crime and certain other matters, he will then take the
course of having each nation try the criminals in its respective juris-
diction. He was even of the thought that the British, French and
Americans might agree to a joint trial, leaving the Russians out. I
expressed to him my personal opinion that that would be quite a slap at
the Russians, leading to recriminations, whereas it would not be quite
so bad if it was decided that each nation would try its own war crimin-
al prisoners.
At any rate, nothing will be done before tomorrow, and 1 said
I would phone him from some place in England and find out what has hap-
pened.
fen
SAM I. ROSENMAN