Part 19

"The castle is splendidly situated with a commanding view of the sea. The vicinity is embellished by beautiful residences. Twenty-five Soviet soldiers form the special guard of the former imperial family; armed with rifles and machine guns and hand grenades, they are under the orders of one officer. These soldiers are determined to prevent any attempt at flight, but, on the other hand, they are also firmly resolved to protect the ex-imperial family against any odious attack. Till recently the Romanoffs spent money freely on their garrison, but now they have financial difficulties, and can no longer pay the soldiers so well. The presence of the Soviet soldiers is sometimes irksome to the imperial family, but at times they are also glad to show their appreciation at being protected against the raids of brigands who infest the country. * * * Grand Duke Nicholas refused to be interviewed, declaring that as a private individual he had nothing to say."

Exchanging Thousands of Prisoners

Franco-German Agreement, Signed at Berne, Provides for Release of More Than 300,000 Captives

The exchange of certain classes of French, Belgian, and German prisoners, totaling about 330,000, began on May 15, 1918, in accordance with an agreement arranged at Berne, Switzerland, by a conference of French and German delegates held there from April 2 to April 26, and later ratified by both Governments. It was announced at the same time that Italy had completed a similar arrangement.

The news of the Franco-German agreement came as a complete surprise to Great Britain and the other allies, and aroused an instant demand for negotiations looking to a release of British prisoners on similar terms. There was a tendency in some quarters to criticise the French Government for its separate action in the matter. After a lively debate on the subject in the House of Commons on May 28, Lord Newton, head of the Prisoners of War Department, stated that the British Government had "already entered into negotiations with the German Government with a view to arranging a wide scheme of exchange, following, broadly speaking, the agreement recently concluded between France and Germany." On the same day a dispatch from Holland announced that both the British and German Governments had informed the Netherlands Government that they wished to send delegates to The Hague shortly to discuss matters relating to the exchange of prisoners.

TOTALS OF PRISONERS

Between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000 prisoners have been taken on both sides since the beginning of the war. The latest exact figures on the subject were published in the Summer of 1917, when the Central Powers held 2,874,271 prisoners, and the Entente Allies held a total of 1,284,050. Germany alone had 1,690,731 prisoners, including 17,474 officers; Austria-Hungary, 1,092,055; Bulgaria, 67,582, and Turkey, 23,903, a total of 2,874,271, of whom 27,620 are officers. This total was made up of the following nationalities:

Total In Number. Germany.

Russian 2,080,699 1,212,007 French 368,607 367,124 Serbian 154,630 25,879 Italian 98,017 Rumanian 79,033 10,157 British 45,241 33,129 Belgian 42,437 42,435 Montenegrin 5,607

The British prisoners of war not in Germany were divided between Bulgaria and Turkey.

The prisoners of the Allies, not including 40,000 Austrians and Bulgarians captured by the Serbians and now in Italy or 20,000 Turkish prisoners in Egypt, were distributed as follows:

Total In In In In Number. Engl'd. France. Russia. Italy.

German 594,050 85,000 259,050 250,000 Austr'n 630,000 550,000 80,000

At the same time Switzerland was sheltering 26,000 interned war prisoners, of whom 16,000 were French, English, and Belgian, while 10,000 were German. In addition, 7,000 relatives were visiting interned men in Switzerland. Most of these interned prisoners will be released by the new agreements, while other thousands will take their place.

FRANCO-GERMAN TERMS

The Franco-German agreement, which, being the first exhaustive document of its kind in this war, will serve as a model for those that follow, provides that all privates and noncommissioned officers who have been prisoners in France and Germany for eighteen months shall be exchanged, man for man and rank for rank, in the order of priority of capture. Officers over 48 years of age are to be released, and certain other classes of officers are to be interned in Switzerland, while the French and Belgian interned soldiers already in Switzerland are to be released. It is estimated that there are 150,000 prisoners on each side who will be exchanged under the Franco-German agreement alone, and as transportation difficulties will prevent the moving of more than 10,000 a month each way, the repatriation of the 300,000 or more who have been in captivity since 1914 will require at least fifteen months. The interned civilians, it is stated, should all be back in their own countries in six months. The release terms are to go on applying to later prisoners as soon as their captivity amounts to eighteen months.

The status of citizens of occupied territory is profoundly modified by the provisions of the agreement, which expressly stipulate that deportations shall cease. Both sides bind themselves not to use released soldiers or civilians in war work. The validity of Germany's promise on this point was a theme of bitter comment in England when the terms of the French agreement first became known.

SUMMARY OF DOCUMENT

The most important articles in the Franco-German convention, which is very long, may be summarized as follows:

Article 1. Direct repatriation, without regard for rank or numbers, for sub-officers, Corporals, and soldiers who have been in captivity at least eighteen months at the time when this agreement goes into force: (a) who have reached the age of 40 years and are not yet 45, and are fathers of at least three living children; (b) who have reached the age of 45, but are not yet 48.

Art. 2. Direct repatriation, man for man and rank for rank, for sub-officers, Corporals, and soldiers in captivity for at least eighteen months, and not included in any of the classes mentioned in Article 1.

Art. 3. In the exchange provided for in Article 2 no distinction will be made between sub-officers. Corporals will be ranked with them.

Art. 4. Internment in Switzerland, without regard for rank or numbers, for all officers in captivity at least eighteen months: (a) who have reached the age of 40 years and are not yet 45, and are the fathers of at least three living children; (b) who have reached the age of 45 years, but are not yet 48.

Art. 5. Internment in Switzerland, man for man, regardless of rank, for sub-officers in captivity at least eighteen months and not included in the foregoing categories.

Art. 6. The order of priority for repatriation and internment shall be determined by priority of captivity and by equal duration of imprisonment after considering age. If this order cannot be followed exactly, the repatriation of the prisoner who has to remain shall not be delayed beyond two months at most.

Art. 9. Repatriation, without regard to rank or numbers, for officers, sub-officers, Corporals, and soldiers who were taken prisoner prior to Nov. 1, 1916, and who on April 15, 1918, find themselves interned in Switzerland by reason of wounds or illness.

TRANSPORTING PRISONERS

Art. 10. The repatriation of these prisoners shall be effected in the following manner: Each train in either direction shall contain 700 prisoners of war to be exchanged, man for man. Each train coming from Germany, moreover, shall contain 100 French prisoners of war designated in Article 1, and each train from France shall contain 50 German prisoners of the same category, until the total in this class on both sides is exhausted. The repatriation shipments should contain a monthly average of 15 per cent. of noncommissioned officers and 85 per cent. of privates.

Art. 11. At the beginning of each series of ten trains of private soldiers there shall be formed on each side a convoy of 400 officers to be interned in Switzerland in accordance with Article 5. This convoy shall include, besides, 100 French officers coming from Germany and 50 German officers coming from France to be interned under Article 4, until the total on each side is exhausted.

Art. 12. The first two trainloads of officers provided for in Article 11 shall start from Lyons, the third from Constance, the fourth from Lyons, and so on alternately. The first ten trains of private soldiers arranged for under Article 10 shall start from Constance; the ten trains of the second series shall go from Lyons, and so on alternately.

Art. 13. Prisoners of war who do not yet come under the conditions prescribed in Articles 1-5 shall be repatriated or interned in Switzerland, as the case may be, as rapidly as the prescribed conditions are fulfilled.

Art. 14. Officers in sound health who are interned in Switzerland either under the present agreement or under the Berne agreement of March 15, 1918, cannot be repatriated save in exceptional cases and solely for serious illness or accident.

Art. 16. Article 19 of the Berne convention of March 15, 1918, concerning the employment of repatriated soldiers shall be applicable to prisoners benefiting from the present agreement. Released Belgian prisoners can be employed in France under the same conditions as repatriated French prisoners.

Art. 17. All the foregoing provisions are to apply to German prisoners of war captured by Belgian troops and to Belgian prisoners taken by German troops. The Belgian officers, sub-officers, and soldiers shall be included in the repatriated and interned French groups in the proportion of one Belgian for ten Frenchmen, up to the exhaustion of the number of German war prisoners who were captured by Belgian troops and who come under the foregoing provisions.

Art. 18. In the repatriation and internment of prisoners under Articles 1-5 only men in sound health are to be counted. Ill or wounded prisoners will continue to be repatriated directly or interned in Switzerland under the conditions laid down under Articles 7-18 of the Berne agreement of March 15, 1918.

Art. 20. The provisions contained in Articles 1-19 of the present convention shall cease to be in force on Aug. 1, 1919, if one of the two Governments shall have given notice to that effect to the Swiss Political Department before May 1, 1919.

FOOD FOR PRISONERS

The articles following those just summarized relate to the treatment of prisoners remaining in captivity. The most important are these:

Art. 25. The daily rations of officers must be sufficient in quantity and quality, especially as regards meat, vegetables, and seasoning, after taking into account the food restrictions imposed upon the civil population. The management of food supplies by the prisoner officers themselves is to be favored in every way.

Art. 26. The daily rations allotted to imprisoned privates in Germany and in France must contain a minimum of 2,000 calories for men not working, 2,500 calories for ordinary workers, and 2,850 calories for prisoners doing heavy work.

Art. 27. Prisoners of war shall, in general, receive the same ration of meat as the civil population.

Art. 28. The minimum ration of bread allotted to imprisoned German officers, sub-officers, and soldiers in France is fixed at 350 grams a day. It will be increased to 400 for prisoners working outside the camp. The minimum bread ration allotted to French war prisoners in Germany is the same as that for the civilian population and is never allowed to go below 250 grams.

Art. 29. The German Government authorizes for all war prisoners a collective assignment of bread at the rate of two kilograms (four pounds) of bread per man per week. The providing and distributing of these consignments of food will continue to be assured for all the camps and detachments affected by the present agreement. The provisions are to be sent free and by fast freight. The consignments are to be distributed without any charge whatever and by the most direct and rapid routes available. The empty sacks can be returned to the country of origin.

Art. 33. The provisions of Articles 25-32 are applicable to Belgian prisoners in Germany as well as to German prisoners who have fallen into the power of the Belgian Government and are now in France.

LIBERATING CIVILIANS

The second part of the agreement deals solely with civilian prisoners:

Art. 1. Civilian prisoners, regardless of age or sex, are authorized, upon their own demand and under conditions hereafter stated, to leave the country where they are held; this applies alike to interned persons and to those who have been liberated after a period of internment.

Art. 2. The word internment is to include all civilians who, whatever the cause or date of their commitment, are or have been detained in any place of internment against their will.

Art. 3. Civilians who at the beginning of the war had their domicile or habitual residence either in the State where they are or on the free territory of the other State will be conducted to the Swiss frontier, whence they can proceed to Germany if they come from France or to France if they come from Germany.

Art. 4. Civilians who at the beginning of the war had their homes in a locality of the occupied regions will be sent back there. They can ask to be taken to the Swiss frontier, and the request will be complied with whenever military necessity does not stand in the way. In cases where, for military reasons, the return of such persons to their homes is impossible, the civilians in question shall be sent to the frontier or to another part of the occupied territory, which will be assigned to them, as nearly as possible, in accordance with their wishes.

Art. 5. If a civilian desires to remain in the territory or State where he now is interned, he will be authorized to do so on condition that his residence there shall be permanent.

Art. 9. The civilians interned in Switzerland at the moment when this agreement goes into effect will be freed from internment.

Art. 12. Civilians who return to their country under the present agreement cannot be employed in military service, either at the front, or in the war zone, or in the interior of occupied enemy territory, or in the territories or possessions of an allied State.

Art. 13. The arrangements for the liberation of civilians shall be put into operation immediately after this agreement goes into effect. Reckoning from that date, the transportation ought to be finished in a space of not more than three months for civilians now actually interned and six months for those interned at some time in the past. This transportation will be furnished free.

The following articles deal with the population of occupied territory:

Art. 17. The inhabitants of occupied territory cannot be compelled to work, except under the following rules: The work must be done under the best material and moral conditions, with due regard to personal aptitudes, social conditions, sex, age, and the physical status of the workers. Members of a family, so far as possible, must not be separated. Their labors must never involve any obligation to take part in war operations against their own country. Work can be demanded only (a) as service for the needs of the army of occupation, within the limitations laid down in Article 52 of The Hague Convention regarding war on land; (b) with the object of preventing idleness on the part of persons capable of working, who are supported at public expense, and who have refused voluntary employment; (c) with the object of providing, in the absence of other means, for the existence of the population.

Art. 18. Persons compelled to work under Article 17 must be employed, with the exception mentioned, in the locality of their domicile or in its immediate neighborhood. If for military or economic reasons an inhabitant has to be removed from his home in order to put him at work, this removal shall not in any case take him outside the occupied territory, nor shall it bring persons whose residence is more than thirty kilometers from the firing line within the limits of that zone.

Suitable provision shall be made for housing and food for workers who shall receive fair remuneration, and, if need be, medical service. Besides rest periods and normal changes they shall be given permission as often as possible to visit their families, with whom they shall also be allowed to correspond and exchange parcels.

Art. 19. Aside from the cases designated in Article 18, and aside from the case of a total or partial evacuation of a locality for military reasons, an inhabitant of occupied territory cannot be displaced from his home against his will, unless, because of his personal attitude, his presence endangers military security or public order.

Art. 20. No civilian coming from one of the two States can in future be interned in the other State or in the occupied territories. Nevertheless, a civilian who, by reason of his personal attitude, and in the interest of military security or public order, has to be removed from his domicile in occupied territory, can be taken into the territory of the occupying State. The duration of his absence from occupied territory must be limited to a period of strict necessity and must not exceed six months, save in exceptional cases. At the expiration of this period the interested person is authorized to return to the occupied territory, unless the authorities should prefer to conduct him to the Swiss frontier.

The foregoing Franco-German agreement was entered into for an initial period of fifteen months, beginning May 15, 1918, and can be renewed for periods of three months each. A Belgo-German agreement of narrower scope was signed at Berne on March 22, 1918, relating only to civilian prisoners.

Horrors of Austrian Prisons

Inhuman Treatment of Civilian Women and Men at Internment Camps

A correspondent of The London Telegraph who spent three years in captivity in Austria has told of the horrible brutalities and cruelties suffered by interned aliens in that country. He states that there are both stations and camps for the interned prisoners, but the former are employed to exploit the captives; they are more livable than the horrible camps, but to live at a station one is charged three to ten times more for food and lodging than the current rates for citizens, and the prisoners suffer greatly for want of food and decent sanitation.

He describes the experiences of prisoners at a place called Illmau, in lower Austria, as typical of Austrian methods. A party of Englishmen were taken there shortly after they had been arrested in Vienna. They were marched along for about twenty kilometers, carrying their bags or packages. It was very cold, below freezing point, and when at last they arrived at Illmau at dark they were pushed into a kind of cellar, three or four steps below the level of the ground. A soldier locked them in, telling them they could go there and die. It was a place with no windows--only a small hole in floor. The floor, bare earth, was wet and muddy, water trickling down the walls. For every two men was one straw sack, also damp, of course, and they were so closely packed that they could not lie straight.

During the day it was so dark that they could not see each other's faces. In the morning they were told that, if they wanted to wash, they might go to the pump from which they also got their drinking water. This pump stood in the middle of a manure heap, and could only be reached by wading knee deep through the liquid pool surrounding the manure heap. The quality of the drinking water can be rather imagined than described. The treatment was most rough; the only argument a guard ever used was the butt end of his rifle--if not the bayonet. Not many words were wasted on the "Schweine - Engländer," (Swine - English.)

One day some high officials came to inspect Illmau, and after they had seen the above-ground portion, the Englishmen, who were shut up in their cellar, could hear them asking if no one was shut up in the cellars, as by rights they ought to inspect the cellars, too. But the guard officer assured them on his solemn word of honor that the cellars were empty. And those who were there did not dare to call out--they knew what their punishment would be--"stringing up" at least. This is an old punishment, where the wrists are fettered behind the back, a cord attached and passed through a ring in the wall over the prisoner's head. This cord is then pulled tight, till the man is forced right on to his toes. He is then kept so for about an hour, or till he faints. This was often done at Illmau.

After the Englishmen had been in their wet cellar for a week, and were nearly all ill with the terrible cold, they were told they could go into an upstairs room. These rooms were occupied by Serbs and Poles, nearly all very ill with consumption and very dirty. Each man received a blanket of a kind of checked pattern. When these blankets were hung up in the yard to air it was impossible to recognize their pattern--they were all a crawling mass. The room into which the Englishmen were put was so full that when they lay down at night they were almost one on the top of the other. The consumptives were always expectorating, and "sanitary arrangements" were unknown.

Drosendorf was a camp where, especially during the first months, prisoners endured the greatest hardships. They slept in sheds, in stables, sometimes on wet straw, sometimes without, and were treated as brutally as in other camps. "Here were also some women," says the correspondent, "and a lady I knew personally. When the latter was brought there with other prisoners, male and female, after walking for miles, they were shut into a large room--men and women together. There the 'sanitary arrangements' consisted of a large pail put down in the middle of the room. This lady was kept in this room with the men for some days, and not allowed to leave it." In this camp at present there are principally Russians, and rarely a day passes that a death does not occur from starvation. Here, as also in the large camp of Katzenau, the rations are as follows: