Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1944, General, Volume I

740.00116 EW/12–2744

The First Secretary of the British Embassy (Bathurst) to the Legal Adviser (Hackworth)

Washington, 27 December 1944.

Dear Mr. Hackworth: With reference to the enclosed aide-mémoire on the subject of the War Crimes draft directive to theatre commanders, you may be interested to know that the Foreign Office have informed this Embassy that, as they have a direct interest in the investigation of war crimes committed against British subjects in Far Eastern territories liberated from the Japanese, they will wish to consider what arrangements of their own, if any, it may be necessary to make to this end to supplement the organizations which they hope will be established by each theatre headquarters in the Far East, to whom it is assumed the proposed directive will also be issued.

We have been instructed to ascertain whether any instructions apart from those contemplated in the draft directive have already been issued, for instance, to General MacArthur or to Admiral Nimitz regarding investigation of Japanese war crimes against United States citizens and what arrangements, if any, have been made or are contemplated for this purpose in liberated territory in the Philippines. These arrangements would be of particular relevance to the plans of His Majesty’s Government for British territory such as North Borneo which also falls within the South West Pacific Command.

This information is being sought through the medium of the representatives of the British Chiefs of Staff in Washington, but I thought you would like to know of the United Kingdom Government’s interest in these matters.

Yours sincerely,

M. E. Bathurst

[Enclosure]

The British Embassy to the Department of State

Aide-Mémoire

The draft directive formulated by the Combined Chiefs of Staff (C.C.S. 705) regarding the obligations of theatre commanders in relation to war crimes has now been considered by the British Chiefs of Staff in consultation with the War Office and the Foreign Office and the amendments thereto proposed by the British Chiefs of Staff are embodied in Combined Chiefs of Staff paper 705/1 of 17th December 1944.

2. It will be seen that the British Chiefs of Staff consider it undesirable that the United Nations War Crimes Commission should be put in the position of issuing instructions to theatre commanders and that accordingly an amendment of paragraph 12 of the draft directive has been proposed. In this connection His Majesty’s Government have now received from the War Crimes Commission the latter’s first and second lists of war criminals (German and Italian respectively) and are considering what action should now be taken in regard to these lists which will doubtless be communicated to the United States Government through their representative on the War Crimes Commission.⁴³

3. Among various other amendments to the draft directive, the British Chiefs of Staff have recommended that each theatre commander should be instructed by the Combined Chiefs of Staff to establish a suitable organization to investigate war crimes and track down offenders. His Majesty’s Government attach particular importance to the very early establishment of such organizations and the British Embassy would be grateful for whatever action the Department of State may be able to take by way of supporting this recommendation with the United States Chiefs of Staff with a view to the early issue of appropriate instructions to theatre commanders by the Combined Chiefs of Staff.

Washington, 27 December, 1944.

43. The first and second lists of war criminals were transmitted to the Department by the American Representative on the Commission in despatches No. 5, December 9, 1944, and No. 9, December 18, 1944; the lists are no longer attached to the despatches in the Department files.