Administration of justice, the state of law and the rights of citizens in Germany under the Hitler regime will be scrutinized by an American inquiry commission comprised of well known attorneys and laymen, which will begin work here on June 27, Arthur Garfield Hays, a member of the commission, announced yesterday.
In initial three-day hearings testimony of witnesses will be reviewed, providing the basis for subsequent investigation and adding another chapter to the fact-finding work begun by the Lord Marley commission in London last summer, Hays stated.
“Our decision to form a commission for inquiry into affairs in Germany by reviewing, in public, testimony of eye witnesses and experts springs from the conviction that there is a need for authenticated presentation of the facts of the National Socialist regime, particularly of recent judicial and legal innovations,” Hays explained.
Among those who will constitute themselves an interrogative and fact-finding body, the following have already given formal consent to serve: Hays, Clarence Darrow, Dudley Field Malone, Stanley High, George Z. Medalie and George Gordon Battle.
The commission is likely to be enlarged by inclusion of others, among them ranking jurists, Hays stated.
“The inquiry is to be completely in the hands of the members of the commission,” he said.
HONEST JUDGMENT SEEN
“Sponsors who helped bring about and who will support the inquiry feel that the personalities and position of the members of the commission furnish the best guarantee that the hearings will be conducted objectively, intelligently and with utter determination to get at the whole truth.
“The published findings should be invaluable sources of information and revelation.”
The names of witnesses whom the commission chooses to hear will be announced soon, Hays stated.
“At the moment I can only state that a number of distinguished and trustworthy persons — British, French and American, as well as German, and all acquainted at first hand with the state of affairs in Germany—have indicated that they will submit to questioning before such a commission.” he said.
Opportunity will be given representatives of the Hitler regime to testify, it was announced.
The chambers in which the hearings of the commission will be held are to be made known soon. At present technical preparations for the sessions and for the reception of witnesses who will come from abroad are being handled in the offices of the American Committee against Fascist Oppression in Germany, 55 West Forty-second street.
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