CHAPTER XII

THE CHURCHES IN SWITZERLAND IN RELATION TO THE INTERNED —ARRANGEMENTS MADE FOR THE SPIRITUAL WELFARE OF THE BRITISH INTERNED —ESTIMATES OF THE PSYCHICAL STATE OF THE INTERNED

Before mentioning the arrangements made for the British Interned, I should like to give a short sketch of the steps taken by the Churches in Switzerland, and of Swiss regard for the spiritual welfare of the Allied and German Interned, before the advent of the British.

I take the Roman Catholics first, as most of the Allied Interned were of that persuasion. The "Mission Catholique," founded by Mgr. Bovet to give moral aid to Ps. of W., engaged itself from the very first to provide, under the direction of the "Aumônier en Chef," for the religious requirements of the Roman Catholics. Mgr. Colliard, Bishop of Lausanne, was appointed President of the Mission, and the Abbé Savoy, one of its members, was charged, in collaboration with both native and Interned priests, and with the assistance of Mgr. Gariel, Professor at the University of Fribourg, with the duty of organizing services in the centres of Internment.

Apart from purely spiritual efforts, the Mission also organized a series of Conferences dealing with the geography, history, industries, and social life of Switzerland.

Early in 1916, the Abbé, now Captain Aumônier Herbert Savoy, was nominated Chaplain-General to the Roman Catholics, Captain Aumônier Spahn to the Protestants, and Dr. M. Erlanger, of the "Rote Mogen David Society," to the Jews. These appointments affected the French, Belgian, and German Interned, the British not having as yet made their appearance in the country.

Each centre of Internment was as far as practicable considered as forming part of local parish organizations, and Interned priests were also appointed to assist the Swiss in their work. The services were held in the parish churches or chapels and oratories improvised for the occasion. Protestants being in a minority, it was not found possible to arrange in an adequate manner for their worship, and Captain Aumônier Spahn could only hold a service for the men once a fortnight, the dissemination of the Interned throughout the various cantons adding to his difficulties. The Jews were ministered to by Grand Rabbi T. Lewenstein at Zürich, and by Dr. M. W. Rappaport and Rabbi Jules Wolff.

The above arrangements met with little difficulty in their application, as they simply portended an expansion of the existing religious organizations of the country. Language offering no bar to common worship, the addition of accommodation in church, chapel, or synagogue was seldom necessary, and the Interned Frenchman, Belgian or German took his place as a member of the ordinary Swiss congregation. The clergy, too, understood the psychology of their flocks, and were not puzzled by any new manifestations of racial characteristics.

In the case of the British, the conditions were of a different order. Here, at once, the differences of race, religious observances, and language became apparent, and it was evident that I should be thrown on my own resources in providing for the spiritual welfare of our officers and men. Château d'Oex was, I found, well served as to religious needs. The importance of the place as a popular mountain resort for British tourists had led to the maintenance there by the Colonial and Continental Church Society of a resident Church of England Chaplain, the Rev. E. Dudley Lampen, and there was also a resident Swiss Roman Catholic priest, the Abbé Bullet. Both these gentlemen placed themselves at my disposal for the service of the men. The Rev. A. M. Sutherland, Minister of Trinity Presbyterian Church of Lausanne, likewise offered himself for duty, and in due course established, at his own expense, a chapel at Château d'Oex for the use of his military congregation.

In September, 1916, the C.C.C. Society further sent the Rev. Isaac Hutchinson from England to assist Mr. Lampen, and these gentlemen performed all the duties connected with the Anglican Church at Château d'Oex, Rougemont and Rossinières, until their relief in 1917, when Army Chaplains were appointed by the Chaplain-General for duty in Switzerland.

At Leysin Church of England services were conducted by the resident Chaplain, the Rev. Mr. Tisdale, who also rendered valuable assistance in his relations with the British Catholics, when as yet no English-speaking priest visited the place.

As regards his military flock, the Abbé Bullet was much handicapped by his imperfect knowledge of English, and I found it necessary, therefore, to make other arrangements, and sought for assistance elsewhere. At this juncture I was brought into touch with the Rev. Father D. V. Rowan, Professor of Exegesis at the University of Fribourg. This town is well known throughout the Catholic world as a seat of learning, and a centre for theological study. For decades past British students have been attracted to its schools, and British professors have long been engaged there at the university and religious institutions. Father Rowan, hearing of my difficulties, at once came forward with the suggestion that he and his British confrères of Fribourg should take it in turn to visit the camps, and thus supplement the work of the local priests. This system was at once adopted and pursued until the winter of 1916-17, when two Fribourg priests, Fathers W. J. Neville and D. Fahey, were allocated duties at Château d'Oex and Mürren as resident Incumbents, a change which gave much satisfaction to them, as they had found the weekly journeys to and from Fribourg extremely trying during the winter months. It was also equally pleasurable to the men to have their spiritual advisers with them at all times.

The arrangements thus inaugurated continued without further adjustment till early in 1917, when, owing to increased numbers of British Interned, it was thought desirable to transfer part of the duties to trained Army Chaplains. The Rev. A. H. Sewell, Army Chaplain 2nd Class, of the Church of England, was appointed to Château d'Oex in January, 1917; and in the course of that year four additional Army Chaplains,—two Church of England, two Presbyterian,—were sent out from England to the various camps, but it was not till early in 1918 that a Roman Catholic Army Chaplain, Dom Chapman, replaced the Rev. Father Neville at Château d'Oex, on the latter receiving his commission and proceeding to France. Apart from this change, the arrangements for the Roman Catholics remained as before. With the arrival in Switzerland of the Rev. A. H. Sewell, who was entrusted with the duty of co-ordinating spiritual effort, the pastoral work gradually assumed the aspect to which the men were accustomed, thereby greatly adding to the comfort of the camps.

I feel bound, however, to pay a tribute to the Rev. E. Dudley Lampen, the Rev. A. Sutherland, the Rev. D. Matheson, M.A., and the Rev. Fathers Rowan, Neville, and Fahey, who did valiant work, and filled the breach, in the absence of the regular Army Chaplains, whose services were at the time required in more important spheres of labour. That they had a difficult task, and one that can only be appreciated by those who were intimately concerned with the daily life of the camps, goes without saying; but it was met in a hopeful spirit, and in some cases with considerable success. They were called upon to deal with soldiers who were sick at heart, and suffering from the harsh treatment of a long captivity, and who had been starved in mind and body, as a result of which they were physically and mentally debilitated, suspicious of their fellow-men, and without much sense of proportion. Moreover, the system adopted in the camps in Germany was calculated to weaken the influence of the N.C.O., and with it had come a relaxation of discipline and a levelling down all round.

The psychology of officers and men during the first year of their internment is one very difficult to analyse. I say expressly the first year, because at the end of that period the building-up process, as affecting both the physical and mental conditions of all ranks, had made headway, and new men were being evolved. After that period the problem had changed, fairly normal conditions had been re-established, and the British soldier of the type known to us all had emerged, differing no doubt from, but approximating to, our previous conception of him.

One of our temporary Presbyterian Chaplains, who gave his services entirely to the men during the critical period of the internment,—that of 1916,—and whose success amongst them was of a high order, has recently written to me of his experiences, which, from the point of view of that difficult question, "the psychology of the men," appear to me of special interest. I cannot do better than refer to his letters on the subject. He writes:—

I am not yet certain how to state the psychology of the life there (in the camp), nor how to justly analyze the why and wherefore of affairs as lived out by the men, but in case it may be a faint glimmer of the thing, may I say one or two things that impressed me.

In the more moral and spiritual region of the men's psychology I found that, given your purpose in being kind to them was on the basis of their humanity, and not to exploit them for your religious or Church ends, but desire to give them a lift in every way, they had a great respect for your sympathy and appreciation, and looked on that which R. L. Stevenson had so much of as evidence of the "true blue piety." Yes, just kind deeds and words, hoping the best for them amid their failings and faults, and doing the best for them in spite of these, and speaking the very best things in spite of these.

The work you gave me to do among the men in the form of religious services I came to feel could not compete in the influence over the men just like the human fellowship; for example, at the farewell one Tommy rose and said: "He was one we could go to in our joys and sorrows, and we found him give us his confidence and friendship, and some of us got it as much when we were bad boys in prison." That reveals a very striking side of the men, their estimate of the moral values of life.

I don't know if I can trouble you with my own spiritual work when I say that I adopted with the men a quite new line for me, which came as a kind of inspiration when I saw them and their natures. Instead of the usual line in our Church life of putting pressure on the men to become religious, or fall in with our ideas of religion, I represented my work among them in its humblest forms of service as a divine power that was seeking to help them….

How little we ministers reveal the true Master, and how much we camouflage Him, and also how much more religious the men are than we think. At Mürren, when Mr. Hobday was presiding with about 200 men on a Sunday night, I went over the last week of our Lord's life, and suddenly I realized that the events of conflict with unscrupulous enemies looked very like the experiences that the men passed through, and when I said, "Men, I feel as if I was describing the path you trod in Germany," there was a distinct approval…. I don't know if you have read the poem by Francis Thompson, called "The Hound of Heaven," well, it describes the pursuing of love, and I found _that_ the best way to win the men. You could woo them into doing anything if you cared for them and they knew it.

I discovered also that the men have no real grievance against the Bible, but against the manner of its presentation, and if we would only be more human we would get them interested. I came to the conclusion that the men had more religion in them than I believed. They were so unselfish and considerate of each other, and they loved and idealized their homes and their children, and I also realized that though they had formed some bad habits, say, drinking too much, there was a great deal of it the result of their abnormal condition of mind, and perhaps we lay too much emphasis on these outward sins, and far too little on the inner faults of spirit.

You will be pleased to hear that I never felt disturbed about their swearing, as I seldom heard it. They were a singularly high type, I thought. Low talk I never heard, and I mixed about with them and conversed with them in quite a human way, and I would have come across it if it existed.

In the moral region of the men's psychology I must refer to the subject of swearing, of which a Chaplain at the front says: "He heard enough to keep his hair on end for the rest of his life." This is a strange experience, and I have no doubt he is not exaggerating, but I want to tell you a fact, that neither I nor … ever in all our experience heard even the mildest swearing, nor ever had to blush over low talk; and what … said is just my own experience that in their intercourse with us, at our own table, where some of them were every week, we found them behave like gentlemen. I am not inclined to explain this by the fact that having our confidences these men were loyal to our friendship. It may be in some measure the reason, but I think it is owing to the fact that those men came out of a terrible experience, an agony of soul, that left its impression; in fact, they had, in religious language, seen the face of God, and could never be the same again.

When I had it said to me that my influence over the men had been accounted for by my sympathy with socialistic principles, I felt it keenly, for it was neither true of me nor of the men I met. I was very pleased to discover not the slightest inclination among the mass of the men of any revolt against law and order, or discipline, when justly administered, and the only instances of a spirit of revolt were when the discipline revealed, as it did only very rarely, I confess, a desire to hit the actor and not the act, or when it in fact seemed revenge or anger against a particular man. I found, indeed, a very general acquiescence in military orders, when the commands came from officers that the men loved and trusted and who treated them as men, with minds and feelings. That certainly could not be called socialistic principles. The "Beloved Colonel" or Captain in the British Army is a man the men continue to respect, and would follow to the death in the path of duty.

What they (the men) want first of all is the human touch, the assurance of comradeship, and only when human friendship has done its work spiritual talk may follow—and perhaps not even then unless there is abundance of kindly actions to your credit. The soldier quickly detects if the dominant idea of the Padre is to bring glory to his Church, and is not passion for doing good to all irrespective of their communion. Among soldiers the religion without label is the most respected. It is a distinct advantage to value at a minimum the petty divisions of the ecclesiastical fold.

The psychology of Ps. of W. and of the Interned has also been the special study of certain well-known Swiss doctors, amongst others, Dr. Clement (Fribourg), Dr. A. L. Vischer (Bâle), and Professor Dr. Robert Bing. Their views have been well summarized by Major Edouard Favre in his work, "L'Internement en Suisse des Prisonniers de Guerre, Malades ou Blessés, 1917," and may be briefly stated as follows:—

The fundamental causes acting on Prisoners of War are loss of liberty, the herding together of large numbers, the unknown duration of captivity. They suffer from want of space, the impossibility of isolating themselves from their fellows, the constant expectation in which they live whilst awaiting letters or parcels, and the ever recurrent disappointments connected therewith; and all these sufferings are accentuated by that important factor, ignorance of the duration of captivity.

At the outset the prisoners seek in febrile activity a release from all these sufferings, which are aggravated by the memories of horrors lived through, apprehensions regarding the future, and nostalgia for country and relatives. Schools, theatrical performances, and concerts are organized; but gradually the exterior world effaces itself and disappears, and the prisoners live in a shadow land, without colour or life. Sensations are blunted, and give place to apathy, and the events of the war are followed with a mediocre interest.

Such is the _milieu_ in which neurasthenia develops, well marked in some, less so in others, but common to all those who have passed six months in captivity behind wire barriers, and reaching a special intensity amongst, roughly speaking, 10 per cent. of the captives. First of all, an exaggerated irritability manifests itself, and the least opposition becomes insupportable. Quarrels are frequent. Then intellectual concentration becomes difficult, and such as renders close attention to a few pages of a book impossible. In such cases the prisoner often deliberately gives up his promenades, and prefers to remain quiescent.

A phenomenon of constant occurrence is the loss of memory, and inability to recall names of persons or of localities, specially those connected with memories anterior to the war. A Sergt.-Major, for instance, forgot the name of the Colonel who commanded his regiment since 1913, and has been unable to recall it up to the present. Several Interned cannot remember the Christian names of their fathers, mothers, and other near relatives. Another cannot recall the name of his village. Such cases are numerous even amongst those who have been in Switzerland for eighteen months.

As a symptom of a secondary nature, insomnia may be mentioned, though this varies. It may play a rôle in one camp, and not in another.

Some prisoners complain of a loss of sight, and many become extremely suspicious and defiant. All have a marked tendency to regard the ordinary events of their daily life from a distorted point of view. The chief sufferers become silent for three or four days at a time, and are plunged in a sort of torpor. Once this state is established, it becomes in general stationary, and does not diminish as long as the captivity lasts.

The horrible monotony, combined with a succession of petty incidents, tends to render the captives small in spirit and egoistic to a degree. They are no longer capable of any deep feeling, and cannot vibrate to the higher emotions. Suspicion is a marked characteristic. Some of the Interned could only see in the disinterested services of one of the greatest of Swiss surgeons the desire to experiment on interesting material. They compared themselves to "lapins de laboratoire."

Outside these symptoms, the impression conveyed by many of the Interned is that of personalities profoundly changed. Their relatives find them altered out of recognition. A distinguished British General of forty years' service who visited his compatriots in Switzerland made the remark, "I thought I knew all there was to be known of British officers and men. I must confess I no longer understand my Interned comrades after their experience as 'Ps. of W.' in Germany."

Dr. Clement remarked that under the changed conditions due to internment in Switzerland, psychical troubles would, it was hoped, rapidly cease to exist, but this did not prove to be the case. This optimism was only justified in a certain measure. Symptoms which persist for a long time, and only gradually disappear, are, a mental instability and a want of power of concentration. The British Interned designate this state by the characteristic expression, "difficulty to settle down."

Troubles of memory are extremely frequent even amongst those who have been a long time in Switzerland, and this symptom differentiates itself from other neurasthenic manifestations by the fact that the sufferer is conscious of his state.

Amongst the intellectuals, an excessive impressionability manifests itself. Despite themselves, they misinterpret a gesture, a play of feature, a tone of voice, a silence even. Sometimes a certain misanthropy has been noticed amongst the Interned, which tends to a desire for that solitude of which they have been so long deprived. One of them explained this by saying: "It is not a dislike of our fellows, but simply the absence of all pleasure, and perhaps a sentiment of discomfort at finding oneself amongst people whose condition is other than our own."

The happy influence exercised by the visits of relatives in bringing back the realities of life to the Interned, and in re-establishing contact with the family, is especially dwelt upon by Swiss medical officers.