Fears have often been expressed that all those suspected of having aided the Nazis will be indiscriminately punished. Such fears have not materialised, if we are to judge from the evidence thus far available, particularly in Italy, Belgium, and France. There have been very few cases in which suspects have been murdered without proof of their guilt, or innocent parties punished along with the guilty. Quite the contrary: it is now clear that fears of too great leniency toward the war criminals are more than justified. In Italy and in Belgium, as well as in France—though to a lesser degree—the present regimes have not treated the war criminals With a severity consonant with the people's sense of justice. In Belgium and above all in Italy the British military administrators have played an influential role in staying the hand of justice. Yet severity is politically necessary if these countries are to be purged of fascism.