CHAPTER VII

THE SWISS SYSTEM OF ADMINISTRATION AND DISCIPLINE RELATIVE TO THE INTERNED PRISONERS OF WAR

In determining the system of administration and discipline for Ps. of W. interned in Switzerland, the Swiss authorities had no precedent to follow beyond the experience gained in 1871, when a French army under General Bourbaki, in seeking an asylum on Swiss territory, was disarmed and interned on crossing the frontier. The conditions under which the internment was effected during the Great War of 1914-1918 were, however, wholly different; for whereas in 1871 the internment was imposed on Switzerland as a neutral State, in accordance with the rulings of international law, in 1915 it was voluntarily offered by the Swiss Government, and was accepted by the belligerent States in accordance with the terms of a Convention to which Switzerland, France, England, and Germany had given their adherence. There was also a further and important difference, viz., whereas in 1871 the Swiss Government was called upon to exercise authority over an armed body of fit men, in 1916 they were given the guardianship of Ps. of W., composed exclusively of the sick and wounded.

For the regulation of the system of internment, two alternatives presented themselves, both of which had their ardent partisans. In the one case, it was proposed that the interned Ps. of W. should be dealt with in the same way as any ordinary unit of the Swiss Army, i.e., they should be administered and controlled by the General Headquarter Staff at Berne; in the other, that they should be placed under the control of the Sanitary Service of the Army, a branch of that Service being specially created for that purpose. Those in favour of the former procedure pointed out that discipline would be difficult of maintenance, if left to the medical officer alone, and that the adoption of an entirely novel procedure, for which there was no precedent, would give rise to trouble; the argument adduced in favour of the latter method was, that as the Interned were either sick, wounded, or convalescent, they could only be dealt with satisfactorily by the Swiss Sanitary Service.

After much deliberation, the Swiss Government declared itself in favour of the creation of a special branch of the Sanitary Service, to which should be delegated the administrative, medical, and disciplinary control of the Interned, and orders to give effect to this decision were issued. This special branch was made independent of the G.H.Q. Staff, and was placed under the ægis of the Political Department of the Government, with Colonel Hauser as Chief Medical Officer of the Army (Médecin d'Armée), in control.

The organization of the new Service took the following form: a central administrative office, under Colonel Hauser, at Berne, divided into three sections to correspond to the three branches of the Interned—the Franco-Belgian, British, and German. Each section had its personnel, with a senior medical officer in charge, who was responsible for the administration and direction of his branch of Interned. The accounts were dealt with by officers detached from the Quartermaster-General's Department of the Army. Directly emanating from, and subordinate to, Colonel Hauser's Headquarters Service at Berne came the regional service of the Interned, with a "Directing Medical Officer," who was responsible for all the camps located within his region. The camps were staffed by medical officers, with the senior in command. As a rule, all these medical officers were of army rank; in some few cases civilian doctors were also employed, though in exceptional circumstances only.

Discipline in the camps was entrusted to the senior Swiss Medical Officer, the senior interned officer being made responsible to him for all officers, and the senior interned N.C.O. for all N.C.Os. and men. As regards discipline in general, the Interned were placed under the same rules and regulations as soldiers of the Swiss Army.

The system, as elaborated for Ps. of W., was calculated to maintain a complete severance between interned officers and men, the former being given no responsibility whatever in a disciplinary sense as regards the latter, i.e., they were not entrusted with any executive authority or any power of punishment. This system had many drawbacks, though possibly it might have proved workable if the officers had been quartered, as in Germany, quite apart from the men. In Switzerland this was not the case, for not only were all ranks located in the same place, but in many instances they were even quartered in the same hotels. Expedience, it might be thought, would have dictated the employment of the interned officer and the delegation to him of a modicum of authority, in order that he might collaborate with the responsible Swiss authorities. Yet, at the outset, nothing of the kind was contemplated, the Swiss preferring to deal with officers and men as distinct and separate entities, without connection one with the other. The motive underlying this policy may, I believe, be found in the fear entertained in Swiss military circles of the delegation of powers to interned officers of certain nationalities, whose arrogance had become a bye-word in Europe, and of whom these circles entertained lively misgivings. Any display of arrogance or harshness would have been extremely repugnant and particularly misplaced when applied to sick men, all of whom were either weakened by suffering or broken in body and nerve. Whatever disadvantages had been envisaged by the practical elimination of the interned officer as a coadjutor of the local Swiss Staff, compensation, it was believed, would be found in the freedom given to the Swiss Medical Officer in his dealings with the men, whose state of health formed so decisive a factor, whether regarded from the medical or the disciplinary point of view.

This system had already been applied to the French and Belgian Interned, of whom a considerable number were already in the country when the first contingent of British arrived in May, 1916. I had not had time to ascertain whether it was working well or otherwise, but I quickly realized that, whatever the result may have been as regards our Allies, it would never have any success with our officers or men, neither of whom would willingly accept a divorce in their relations, now that they had once again been happily reunited after the long interval of separation as Ps. of W. in Germany.

Moreover, there were difficulties inherent to the situation, which no amount of goodwill on the part of the Swiss would enable them to overcome unaided. The mentality of the British soldier, who, in the absence of his own officers, would probably prove refractory to the enforcement of a discipline to which he was unaccustomed, was a factor to which the Swiss had not given enough consideration. The language difficulty, too, although not insuperable—for the Staff were fairly well conversant with English—was still an obstacle to understanding, and there were many matters connected with the daily life of the British soldier, his customs and habits, which were outside the ken of the Swiss, and for which light and leading could only come from their own officers.

The preliminary experience gained in the treatment of our Allied comrades, the French and Belgians, would doubtless prove of value, but that value had to be discounted, for in their case the language difficulty was entirely eliminated, French being the language both of themselves and of their hosts. In thought, customs and habits, likewise, there was no marked difference between our Allies and the inhabitants of that part of Switzerland in which they were located. The same applies to the Germans, for they also were located amongst a population speaking their own language.

I seized the earliest opportunity of talking over these matters with Major Dr. Mercanton, the Directing Medical Officer of the region in which Château d'Oex was situated, and pointed out that a strict adherence to the letter of the regulations affecting the position of the British officer in his relations to the men would inevitably add to the perplexities of his Swiss colleagues. Further, that the men would not readily give their adherence to a system which subordinated them entirely to the Swiss, and prevented them from addressing themselves to their own officers when in difficulty.

I suggested that the junior British officers should be given specific duties in the camp in connection with its interior economy, and that the senior British officer should be given a position more befitting his rank and standing. He gave his assent to the former proposition, but the actual application of this concession was made in a very cautious manner, the position and duties of these officers remaining very vague and undefined, whilst those of the "S.B.O." were not immediately changed in any material fashion. The thin edge of the wedge had, however, been inserted, which I felt would finally open the doors to a fuller understanding.

On returning from Château d'Oex to my headquarters at Berne, I called on Colonel Hauser, and urged upon him the necessity of amplifying, if possible, the concession made in favour of the junior officers, which I characterized as much too vague to be of permanent value, though useful as a basis for future developments. He seemed at first to regard with some dismay the line I had taken, and demurred to the creation of a precedent which might have far-reaching consequences. He pointed out that any change in the status of British officers would inevitably lead to a change in that of all interned officers, whether French, Belgian, or German, and he was not prepared to proceed far along that line. He added that he had every confidence in the good sense of the British officer, and was persuaded he would not abuse any privilege conceded to him, but he had to regard the internment as a whole, and not as affecting one special section. Finally, he asked me to be satisfied for the present, and to await results.

To this I assented with the best possible grace, realizing that radical changes could only be effected in the light of experience, and that time alone would show whether my views as regards the necessity for closer co-operation between Swiss and British officers in the camps was essential or otherwise.

In August, 1916, a second large contingent of British Ps. of W. arrived in Switzerland, the well-known mountain resort of Mürren being assigned to them as an interned centre. Mürren lies in the Bernese Oberland, and is situated in one of the German-speaking cantons. The conditions regulating the internment at this spot were in many respects more favourable than at Château d'Oex, for the whole camp was very compact, with a front of about one kilometre in length as against the ten kilometres of Château d'Oex. The officers had the further advantage of being housed in a first-class hotel, the accommodation of which could hardly have been bettered, and the fact of their all being lodged under one roof under the direct supervision of the "S.B.O." proved of inestimable value to all concerned.

Lt.-Colonel F. H. Neish, Gordon Highlanders, and Captain Dr. Llopart, the directing Swiss Medical Officer, quickly reached an understanding by which all such details as clothing, pay, institutes, workshops, Red Cross and Y.M.C.A. work, religious instruction, etc., were to be dealt with as purely British matters by the "S.B.O." and his officers, without interference on the part of the Swiss authorities, whilst the administration and discipline of the camp were to be reserved, as of right, to Captain Llopart and his Staff. This arrangement also admitted of some co-operation between the Swiss and British officers for disciplinary purposes. This sub-division of duties gave scope to the long dormant energies of our officers, and proved of incalculable benefit in reviving in them a feeling of responsibility, which the conditions of their captivity in Germany had partially atrophied.

As soon as the camp had had sufficient time to settle down, Colonel Hauser paid it a visit of inspection, and I was much gratified on his return to Berne when he expressed to me his keen satisfaction at the spirit prevailing, and his astonishment at the rapidity with which all ranks had adapted themselves to the novel conditions of their internment. Mürren, to use his own words, "showed signs of becoming the model camp of Switzerland."

I now pointed out to him that we should, in all probability, obtain equally good results at other centres where progress had not been so marked, if the system evolved at Mürren, which, of course, was in no small degree the result of the experience gained elsewhere during the preceding three months, was made applicable to all British camps throughout Switzerland. I was not unmindful, in doing so, of our previous conversation on the subject of Château d'Oex, when he had asked me not to attempt to proceed too fast at that place, and to await the results of the small concessions I had obtained for the improvement of the position of the "S.B.O." and other officers, in so far as their relation to the men and to his own Medical Staff was in question.

The Colonel met me more than half-way, and it was evident that his inspection had convinced him of the necessity for that closer co-operation between Swiss and British which I had urged upon him previously. He now, at my request, sent out orders convening a meeting at Berne of the "D.M.Os." and the "S.B.Os." of Château d'Oex, Mürren, and Leysin, with a view to the co-ordination of the diverse systems in operation in these camps. This meeting, at which I was present, took place under the presidency of Major de la Harpe, Staff Officer of the British Section at Headquarters, and resulted in the elaboration of the procedure evolved at Mürren, and the subsequent promulgation of orders to all British camps alike, whereby the delicate questions of the position and duties of our officers were, at last, finally set at rest.

The principles laid down at this meeting had far-reaching consequences, for they were made applicable at a much later date, and in a modified form, to the Franco-Belgian and German sections of the Interned. I was always led to understand, however, that the relations between our officers and the Swiss Camp Staff, as also between the former and their men, were of a more intimate nature than those of our Allies or of the Germans in a corresponding sense.

Another reform was effected by the appointment of an officer of the Swiss Army as Camp Commandant, assistant to the "D.M.O.," who relieved the latter of the greater part of the purely disciplinary work. The title of "Commandant" was somewhat of a misnomer, as this officer was subordinate to the "D.M.O."; but the change proved of a beneficent nature, as it enabled the medical officers to devote themselves more particularly to the medical and administrative side of their task, and transferred the matter of discipline to officers accustomed to the handling of men. Most of these Commandants had had experience of business life abroad, and were, therefore, qualified by their linguistic and cosmopolitan education to understand the outlook of the British soldier. They found no difficulty in adapting themselves to the mentality of the Interned, and became useful members of the camps' organization.

These reforms did not connote any change in the status or duties of the "D.M.O.," who remained, as before, the administrator and disciplinary chief of the region. Under the new conditions, the Commandant was assisted by orderly officers chosen from the junior ranks of the Interned, who were allocated duties in connection with the interior economy of the camp, and with the maintenance of discipline. The right of punishment for military offences was reserved to the Commandant alone, but in all cases the preliminary investigation was made by the orderly officer, who carried on the case to the Commandant for punishment or otherwise. This procedure gave great satisfaction to the men, who were thereby assured of a careful hearing by their own officers before the final hearing by the Swiss Commandant.

Minor offences were dealt with by the Commandant or the "D.M.O.," their respective powers being limited to ten and twenty days' cells. More serious offences were referred to the consideration of the "Médecin d'Armée" at Berne, whose powers extended to thirty days' cells. Cases for court martial were reported to the Judge Advocate-General for decision. If orders for trial by court martial ensued, the matter was dealt with by an "Itinerant Court Martial," composed of Swiss officers, the defence of the accused being delegated to an officer of the Swiss Bar possessing a knowledge of the language of the accused. The composition of the court martial was in every way satisfactory, great regard being shown to the interests of the accused with the aid of Counsel. The area covered, however, was so great, extending, as it did, from one end of Switzerland to the other, that it was impossible for the Itinerant Court to keep abreast of the work. Accused were, in consequence, not infrequently incarcerated for considerable periods whilst awaiting trial. It would sometimes happen that at the end of this delay the accused would be declared "not guilty," and be released after a detention lasting from four to twelve weeks. If declared "guilty," the period of detention was deducted from the award; if "not guilty," a compensation in money might or might not be paid, as the circumstances of the case dictated. The fact of this prolonged detention before trial was the only unsatisfactory feature of the system, but as the procedure was common to both Interned and the Swiss Army alike, and was, moreover, in accordance with the tenets of Swiss Military Law, protests were unavailing.

Taken as a whole, the severity of punishments for military offences was no greater than in the British Army, though the difference was marked as regards the offence and its antidote. It was at first a matter of much amusement to our men to be sent to bed for three days for a minor offence which would have been awarded three days' "C.B." (confinement to barracks) by a British officer. This form of punishment is quite common to the Swiss soldier, and is evidently much disliked by him; but to our men it appeared more in the light of a joke. Here we have one small instance of the divergence in custom and mentality between the Swiss and ourselves.