The Better Germany in War Time Part 7

Our survey of the reliable evidence at present available seems to me to prove that there has usually been a serious effort in Germany to treat military prisoners well. This does not imply that their lot is otherwise than hard, and the prolongation of the imprisonment adds terribly to the hards.h.i.+p. It is impossible to banish from one's mind such horrors as those of Wittenberg, but it is quite plain that these were very far from typical. When militarism goes wrong, it goes very wrong. If we consider the special German difficulties with regard to prisoners, and the special dangers of the militarist state, we may, I think, conclude a very fair standard of humanity amongst the German people from the fact that in so large a proportion of cases treatment has been reasonable and in many even excellent.

I have no wish to arouse any resentment, and in case this conclusion should do so, I quote here a further neutral opinion, that of a well-known Norwegian, M. T. E. Steen, who had been allowed to visit prisoners' camps in Britain, France, and Germany. M. Steen gave a lecture at the Queen's (Small) Hall on July 15, 1915, under the auspices of the British Red Cross Society. Sir Louis Mallet presided. According to the _Daily Telegraph_ report, "M. Steen spoke favourably to the conditions prevailing at the various internment camps he visited in Germany, and expressed the hope that his remarks would remove misgivings and allay anxiety. The general impression which the camps made on him, he said, was 'very satisfactory.'"

We must remember, too, that in Germany also all kinds of rumours and statements have circulated with regard to the treatment of prisoners and wounded by us and our Allies (cf. pp. 2, 32, 38, and 80). Such rumours and exaggerations are apparently a part of war. On the other side they have not made for a benevolent att.i.tude, and the really large amount of interest openly shown in prisoners of war by such men as Prince Lichnowsky, Prof. Stange, Prof. Gmelin, the Gottingen Pastors, and others, is a remarkable fact. We realise this the more, when we consider that it is not easy on this side for men in prominent positions openly to show interest in German prisoners of war.

CAMPS IN U.K.

It would be interesting to compare the U.S. reports on British camps with their reports on German ones. Unfortunately any useful comparison is impossible. A collection of reports on "various internment camps in the United Kingdom" is published in White Paper No. 30 (1916), but the earliest inspection here recorded took place on February 21, 1916. As the chief difficulties everywhere occurred earlier, the earlier reports are plainly necessary for a fair comparison. "Are we as compa.s.sionate to our prisoners as our ancestors were to theirs?" wrote the _Daily Chronicle_ on October 29, 1914, and added "From accounts that have reached us of the conditions that prevail at some of our concentration camps, we fear not." Moreover, in these later reports it is difficult to know the exact meaning of such remarks as the following, unless we have the earlier reports: "They seemed much happier and more contented than at the time of my former visit...." (Officers' Camp, Holyport). "There has been no change in the sleeping accommodations since the last report, but as the number of the prisoners is much less than it was at that time, there is much more room...." (Dorchester.)

"The general tone of the hospital seemed to be much happier than at the time of my last visit." (Dartford, Lower Southern Hospital for wounded prisoners of war.)

"There has been no change in the sleeping accommodation since the last visit, except that, owing to the smaller number of men, there is now more room than before.... The men seemed much happier and more contented than at the time of our last visit." (Officers' camp, Donington Hall.)

The last quotation recalls the once famous charges as to the excessive luxury of Donington Hall. In every country the same kind of protest arises as to the luxurious treatment of prisoners, and this is declared a scandal in view of the inhuman policy of the enemy. In every country is to be found the type of patriot who feels that all is lost if it can be proved that he has treated an enemy too well. The hubbub about Donington Hall led to the appointment of a Commons delegation to visit various camps, and to a report in the _Times_ (April 26, 1915). In this report the Hall is described as "a large, bare house situated in a hollow.... The style of furnis.h.i.+ng was that of a sergeant's mess." There was one piano, provided at the prisoners' expense. The billiard tables and other accessories imagined by perfervid patriots vanish into thin air.

Dyffryn Aled Officers' camp in North Wales is described in the same account as "an inaccessible, gloomy, mildewed-looking house, with all the windows on the front side covered with iron bars. It was previously used as a private lunatic asylum. The kitchen seemed about the best room in the house.... There are no fixed baths, but the officers' valets carry hot water from the kitchen for hip baths." As regards the site of Dyffryn Aled it is only fair to quote the U.S. report: "The situation of the house, in a romantic valley among the Welsh mountains, is fine and healthy." But even in April, 1916, the bathing arrangements remained primitive: "Each officer has his tin tub." One would certainly not wish to make any hards.h.i.+p of this, yet it is perhaps as well to recall the U.S. reports on Friedberg and Crefeld in May and April, 1915, respectively. "The room containing the shower-nozzles would ... do credit to a club or hotel of the first cla.s.s." (See p. 23.) At Crefeld: "The bathroom which I saw has a floor s.p.a.ce of about 1,500 square feet, one-half of which, drained in the centre, lies under some 20 shower nozzles. There are a couple of porcelain tubs in the other half, and in the centre there is a large stove. Hot and cold water is available. The British officers were enthusiastic in their praise of this room." (P.

13.)

A FRIENDLY THOUGHT.

The "Stobsiad," the magazine of the prisoners' camp at Stobs, Scotland, contains in its seventeenth number (Jan., 1918) a friendly thought for the interned "enemy" in Germany. The Y.M.C.A. and the Friends tell them of the ever-increasing need of the interned Englishmen for English books. "Would it not be possible," the paragraph proceeds, "for our German readers to place English books that they could part with at the disposal of the English prisoners of war, just as here German books have been placed at our disposal. Dr. Elisabeth Rotten's Committee (Berlin, No. 24, Monbijou-Platz 3) will gladly give further information. It would give us pleasure if many of our readers would fulfil this wish."

UNRELIABLE COMPLAINTS.

"There has been some trouble with correspondence," we read (_Times_, l.c.). The Commandant of one camp, while censoring a prisoner's correspondence, came across a statement that "he slept on a plank bed with a verminous mattress ... the prisoner admitted that he had written a false statement in order to induce his friends to send him more luxuries." I am reminded of a report from Zossen mentioned by the Swiss Red Cross delegate. I quote from the abstract in the _Basler Nachrichten_: "It appears that there is much correspondence with sympathetic ink at Zossen. A great deal of iodine, starch and condensed milk are sent to the prisoners by their friends. These materials serve for the preparation of such inks." We have heard of the use of sympathetic ink in this country. Experience suggests that complaints made by these methods are not to be relied on. The man who likes to tell a tall story is not very infrequent, either amongst civilians or soldiers, and if he can gain notoriety or advantage thereby, the temptation is considerable. Let these be obtained at the expense of the enemy, and the temptation is greater still. Some German girls were being taken back to Germany. An officer asked a girl what kind of a time she had in England. "Oh, dreadful," she replied at first. It was the way to gain kudos. But generosity came to her rescue, she repented and corrected herself: "No, perfectly lovely," she said, "everyone was good to us."[12] There are many on both sides who would not repent, but would make capital out of their interlocutor's ignorance.

RUMOURS.

Rumours, of course, still continue. They will continue as long as pa.s.sions run high. There was a rumour of smallpox at Ruhleben. The English Captain of the Camp wrote to say: "There have been no cases of smallpox since the camp was started here." There were repeated rumours that parcels were not delivered. An appeal was made to the Director of the Press Bureau by C.Q.M.S. J. R. Wheeler of the 2nd Wilts. Regt., prisoner at Gottingen. He pointed out that these rumours (apparently confirmed by postal officials) were totally unfounded. "Parcels arrive safely, and are issued to men often within a couple of hours of being received from the Post Office." The same matter is dealt with by U.S.

representatives, but, as the Swiss delegate, Arthur Eugster, remarks, even neutral reports are in these days distrusted. In fact, often it is only what seems to confirm the worst suspicions that is believed. Mr.

Wheeler points out that "the packing of parcels leaves much to be desired; in many cases a cake is put in a cardboard box and lightly wrapped up in brown paper," a statement that is important in view of the common opinion that British parcels were specially maltreated. The idea of differential treatment had indeed become an obsession. An example of the extraordinary nonsense that is believed is the story that "on the hospital s.h.i.+p, Oxfords.h.i.+re, on March 19, sixty wounded British soldiers, the majority of them from the Black Watch and 6th Gordon regiments, were taken out of their cots to make room for sixty Germans ... and that, in addition, the Germans were supplied with fresh eggs and bread, while the British wounded soldiers had only biscuits." All this was the subject of a grave question in Parliament. The story was, of course, without foundation, but, according to Mr. Tennant himself, "it had obtained widespread credence." Marvellous indeed is the credulity of war-time.

PRISONER WORKERS.

How far hatred is due to want of knowledge the record of prisoner farm workers on this side proves:

As to the German prisoners, it took both the farmers and the townspeople in the places where they are quartered, and from which they are often motored to the farms, some little time to overcome the widespread prejudice against their employment. But, after a little acquaintance with them, this prejudice appears to be dying down.

"They are one of our mainstays on the farms in West Suss.e.x," Mr.

Herbert Padwick, chairman of the West Suss.e.x War Agricultural Committee, and vice-president of the Farmers' Union, told me.

"Some of them," he said, "are themselves farmers, and the sons of farmers. Their work looks slow, but in the end, as a rule, we find it very thorough. They used to say, perhaps chaffingly, they wanted to produce the best crop we have ever had in England, because they were sure the Germans would take it. No doubt they really thought it at one time, but they are not, I think, under this illusion any longer."

_Daily News_, Aug. 20, 1918.

Most of us have heard favourable comments from farmers and others as to the work of their German helpers. "I think they've done jolly well, and they deserve some encouragement," said one man to me. The idea that all Germans are "Huns" vanishes on personal acquaintance. On the other side prejudices similarly vanish, and I remember seeing an account of how a German farmer took his prisoner helpers for a picnic. Evidently he was allowed considerable freedom with them. There were German Press protests against the picnic.

From the _Daily News_ of September 28, 1918, I take the following:

Here is a "gleaning" worth setting beside those which "Kuklos"

gave us yesterday. A West-country farmer of my acquaintance has a brother who is a prisoner in the hands of the Germans at a place not far from Stettin. Recently a number of German prisoners were sent to work on his farm, and among them was a German farmer from that very place. The German told him that he had English prisoners on his own fields in the Fatherland, so that quite possibly this curious exchange may be complete.

It may be mentioned, incidentally, that the English prisoner speaks well of his treatment in Germany. The German, for his part, a.s.sured my friend that while his prisoner-hands were not receiving excellent cider, like that which he himself was now allowed, they had plenty of good beer during the harvest.

I have often thought that a widespread distribution of prisoner workers throughout each belligerent country might do more than anything else to allay mutual misunderstanding. In all wars the tendency is to regard the enemies as terrible beings, scarcely even of human shape. To a considerable extent this is due to the fact that all the horror of war is attributed by civilians to the enemy. The soldiers of course know better. But when the civilian finds enemy prisoners good fellows to work with, he cannot often resist the proof of our common humanity. A village girl was telling me lately how the feelings of many had altered since German prisoners had been in the neighbourhood, and especially marked had been the effect upon those who had actually worked with them. "So you've changed your mind about them," she said to a friend who worked with prisoners, and the friend had the courage to answer quite simply: "Yes, I have." If we all have the courage to change our minds, the peace that comes will be real.

SOME OTHER PRISONERS.

There is often so much similarity in the complaints made on both sides that the sufferings would seem to be very similar. I happened once, in a private hotel, to get into conversation with some German women who had been taken prisoner in East Africa. They were scarcely "military prisoners," but they were taken prisoner in the ordinary operations of war. With the women were three children. A young baby was wizened and pitiable, a little boy of between three and four had evidently had his whole body covered with boils or abscesses, a little girl of perhaps five would have been a charming little creature, but for a large abscess on her forehead and big swellings under the eyes. I asked how it was the children were in this condition. The Belgians, by whom these women were originally taken prisoner, would not, I was told, supply any milk for the children. It may be said that the Belgian officials should be consulted on this point, and I am well aware that prisoners' statements need corroboration. Do we, however, apply this rule in other cases? Are we careful to investigate newspaper reports of the statements of prisoners who have been in German hands, and should we suggest that the evidence of German officials should also be taken? The women struck me as singularly quiet, and unhysterical, and I must add, fair-minded.

There were officials at times, they said, who were more humane, and provided milk on the quiet. Did they make any protests, I asked. "At first we did," they answered, "but we were always told 'You are prisoners, and have nothing to say.'" The condition of the children certainly suggested that they had suffered severely from malnutrition.

This may indeed have been unavoidable, and not the fault of any one. I had a little further chat with one of the group, a very quiet woman, whose rather drawn, set face showed that she had pa.s.sed through hard times. It was a little pathetic to me to note how sincerely she was convinced of the superior virtues of her side. "In the earlier days of the war when we had English prisoners," she said, "they were always well fed, even though we went short. Our Commandant always made a point of seeing that they were well provided for." There was in the quiet, rather weary voice just a gentle shade of reproach, and that was all. I have not the slightest doubt that the woman was perfectly sincere. I made only the very obvious remark that it seemed to me there were good and bad on both sides, and that some officials behaved well, and some not well. It was a mistake to generalise and think all was ill on the other side and all was well on one's own. She saw fairness in this view, I think. There was a mutual approach, and a growing kindliness. I felt then, and feel more strongly now, that kindness cannot grow out of merely aggressive patriotism.

TURKEY.

It seems plain that in France, Germany and Great Britain there has been an honest, if not always a very sympathetic attempt to treat prisoners decently. But we hear little about the condition of prisoners elsewhere.

It is curious to note how, in spite of all the horror perpetrated repeatedly by Turkish authorities in times, not of war, but of peace, British feeling is never very indignant against the Turk; and how prisoners of war are faring in Turkey we scarcely know. Not till July, 1917, does there seem to have been any definite application for the inspection of Turkish internment camps. On July 18, 1917, an announcement appeared in the Press to the effect that, in response to a request from the British Government, the International Committee of the Red Cross at Geneva had applied to the Turkish Government for the necessary permission.

Yet here, as in all war matters, we come upon "reprisals." The following is a cutting from the _Daily News_ of July 20, 1917:

Mr. James Hope, for the Foreign Office, stated in the Commons yesterday that five British officers had been for over three months imprisoned in Constantinople as a reprisal for the alleged imprisonment of Turkish officers in Egypt. The United States Amba.s.sador was requested on April 25 to explain to the Porte by telegram that only one of the five Turkish officers in Egypt had been under arrest, and that for attempted escape. He regretted to say that one of the five British officers had died.

They had just received a message from the Danish Minister at Constantinople stating that the four surviving officers returned to camp on July 4.

Statements about _enemy_ reprisals are usually less frank than this. The neutral observer has usually to watch each side describing its most drastic actions as reprisals upon the other for similar deeds.

SERBIA.

The condition of Austrian and German prisoners in Serbia has been touched upon by Dr. F. M. d.i.c.kinson Berry, Physician to the Anglo-Serbian Hospital Unit. I give the following quotations from an article by Dr. Berry in the _Nation_ of August 21, 1915.

"There is no doubt that the prisoners suffered badly during the winter.... Typhus decimated them earlier and more universally, probably owing to the way in which they were crowded together. Outside the town our prisoner pointed out a cottage adjacent to a brick-kiln, where he, with 250 men, had stayed some months without beds, blankets, or even straw to sleep on, and with the scantiest of food." But the villagers showed kindness, said the prisoner, and bestowed on them the food placed by Serbian custom on the graves of the dead. "Many of the prisoners fell sick and were taken off to the hospital. Here, too, they lay on the floor with nothing to cover them but a great-coat, if the fortunate possessors of such. Few who entered the hospital ever came back; if not ill with typhus when they came in, they were pretty safe to get it there, and they pa.s.sed on to the cemetery beyond the town, where, as in so many Serbian cemeteries, however remotely situated, there is a portion covered thickly with plain wooden crosses, marking the graves of Austrian prisoners. Our informant told us that of those with him 50 per cent. had died; of eleven Italians whom he had under his charge one only survived. Asked whether they had any guards, he said no; each sergeant (he himself was one) was put in charge of fifty men, and was answerable with his life in case any should escape." There were, however, some compensations for the primitive barbarity of these arrangements. The Serbian people did not attack their prisoners, they fed them. They might have learned a less human att.i.tude under more civilised conditions. "As we motored through the town we were amused at the number of greetings our prisoner received; he was evidently a well known and popular person.

As we pa.s.sed he pointed out the houses of acquaintances and other objects of interest. On one side lived a munic.i.p.al official, who, finding that he held the same sort of post in Bohemia, greeted him as a colleague and used to ask him to his house. Further on was the fountain where he had come to wash his clothes in the bitter winter weather, and close by the house of the kind but match-making old lady who washed his clothes for him, and having a daughter's hand to dispose of, wished to keep him as a son-in-law."

RUSSIA.

Of what happened in Russian prison camps we have only rumours, and the usual individual statements. The old Russian regime was scarcely likely to be very efficient or very humane in its treatment of prisoners, but any one who has examined war stories will be very cautious of believing all that is told. What the "unofficial information and rumours" were may be sufficiently gathered by referring to the _Cambridge Magazine_ of August 26, 1916, Supplement "Prisoners." It may be well to add this: in November, 1918, Erzberger, interviewed by Dr. Stollberg, of the _Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung_, a.s.serted that out of 250 thousand prisoners in Russia only 100 thousand remained alive.

AN IMPORTANT COMPARISON.

It will help to clarify our ideas of charges of ill-treatment to remind ourselves of the following. A British officer, Lieut. Gilliland, was put in charge of the British prisoners of war captured by the Bulgarians.

Mr. MacVeagh brought forward in the House of Commons various charges made against this officer by repatriated prisoners. It was said that he distributed unfairly food and clothing consigned to Irish prisoners, and that he ordered the flogging of British prisoners by their Bulgarian captors for the most trivial breaches of discipline. Mr. Macpherson, for the War Office, said prisoners repatriated from Bulgaria had made allegations against Lieut. Gilliland which were entirely opposed to information received from independent sources, especially from the U.S.