A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
SUCH is the multiplication of other interests crowding in that little attention is being given to the fact that the greatest trial in history—having regard to its character and the number and past history of the defendants I do not hesitate to call it that—reaches its dramatic climax on Monday. That most or all the prisoners will be found guilty and that death sentences will be passed on some, per- haps on the majority, may be stated as an obvious probability. No one, I imagine, will take much satisfaction in that. To the Judges them- selves, who have sat opposite these men, watching their every gesture and their every emotion five days a week for over ten months, it must be painful in the extreme to decree the end of one after another of them. But once the wheels of justice are set moving they must revolve in their appointed course. The purpose of the trial has been to demonstrate to future generations that men found guilty of acts such as these men are charged with must pay the penalty. Which of the Nuremberg prisoners will be found guilty without extenuation, which with extenuation and which, and if any, not guilty, is hardly a fit matter for speculation. Speculation, in any case, will be satisfied in four days' time.
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