Office of the Historian

740.00116 E.W./12–1144

The American Representative on the United Nations War Crimes Commission (Pell) to the Legal Adviser (Hackworth)

New York, December 11, 1944.
[Received December 12.]

Dear Mr. Hackworth: I understand from our conversation the other day that the State Department approves of,

1.
The idea of the Military Court being established for the trial of war prisoners.
2.
That I can go ahead and demand the consideration of crimes committed in Germany against German nationals on account of race, religion or political influence, provided these offences took place after the beginning of the war, as war crimes to be punished as such.
3.
That the Department approves of an expansion of the secretariat and of the machinery of the Commission in London.

I also understand that the War Department will cooperate closely with the Commission and will keep in touch with me, and I presume that, provided I send copies of all correspondence to you, I may deal directly with them especially on matters of urgent detail.

I shall be in Washington on Monday, the 18th.

I am,

Yours most sincerely,

Herbert Pell