The Better Germany in War Time Part 1

The Better Germany in War Time.

by Harold Picton.

FOREWORD

One kind of German has been too often described, and not infrequently invented. I propose here to describe the other German. At a military hospital a lady visitor said to the wounded soldiers: "We've had lots of books and tales of horror; why don't some of you fellows prepare a book of the good deeds of the enemy?" There was a slight pause. "Ah," said one of the soldiers, "that would be a golden book." Very imperfectly, and in spite of all the barriers raised by war pa.s.sions, I have tried to collect some of the materials already to hand for such a book.

In any quarrel it is difficult to recognise that there is good in one's opponent. Yet in order that any strife may be wisely settled, this recognition is plainly necessary. Mere enmity, without recognition of good, belongs to primitive barbarism. It was against the foolish unpracticality of this older barbarism (not surely only against its wickedness) that Christ protested in the words, "But I say unto you, love your enemies." He saw around him the folly and unenlightenment of the perpetual feud. I have collected the testimonies that are in the following pages because such facts seem to me to need wider recognition, if we are ever to gain an outlook upon a fairer and a truer world.

If my desire for peace has anywhere shown itself unduly, or in a way irritating to others, I ask forgiveness. Whenever peace is made, the world will need a peace built on all the facts of human nature. I have tried to give here some of those which war pa.s.sions inevitably obscure.

That is the whole of my task.

HAROLD PICTON.

_September, 1918._

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: With the exception of a few minor insertions the whole of this book was compiled, and the preface written, before Peace came. It seemed, however, that it might only be harmful if published then. I, therefore, kept the book back, but, as the wording expressed my feeling as I wrote, I have left it unchanged.]

The Better Germany in War Time

I.

MILITARY PRISONERS.

The cases of bad treatment of prisoners in Germany have been made known very widely. No one, I imagine, can wish to defend bad treatment of prisoners anywhere (even of criminal prisoners), and such a horrible state of things as that of Wittenberg during the typhus epidemic is a disgrace to human nature.

But Mr. Lithgow Osborne says: "My whole impression of the camp authorities at Wittenberg was utterly unlike that which I have received in every other camp I have visited in Germany." (Miscel. 16, 1916, p.

6). I propose to give some account of these other camps. I shall not exclude adverse criticism, but as the public have heard little but such criticism, I do not think it will be unfair to deal in these pages more fully with the favourable reports.

LETTERS FROM OFFICERS AND OTHERS.

The following letter from a British Officer appeared in the _Times_ of December 30, 1914. It may well serve as an introduction and a caution:

I do not doubt Private O'Sullivan's wonderful experience as a prisoner, but his is, I am sure, only an isolated case, and not at all the usual treatment to which British prisoners are subjected. I can speak from experience, as I, too, was a prisoner (wounded), but afterwards released, as the building in which I was, along with several German wounded, was captured by the British. During the time I was with the Germans they treated me with every consideration. Food was scarce, owing to the fact that the roads were so well sh.e.l.led by our artillery that their transport could not come up; but they shared their food with me.

They also dressed my wound with the greatest care, and in every way made me as comfortable as possible. Being able to speak a little German, I talked to the other wounded, and found that their papers also published dreadful tales of our treatment of prisoners, which I am glad to say I was able to refute.

I am, Sir, yours faithfully, A BRITISH OFFICER.

December 27.

I would especially call the attention of fair-minded men to the last sentences.

Here is a letter written by Second-Lieut. F. Phillips Pearce (aged 18) of the 2nd Ess.e.x Regiment, from Crefeld on October 27, and printed in the _Times_ of November 19, 1914:

We are treated very well indeed here. We have good beds and fires in the rooms, three good meals a day, and a French soldier for a servant, and this morning I had a splendid hot bath. We have roll call twice a day, at 8 a.m. and 9.45 p.m., and lights out at 10.45, and we have a large courtyard to walk about in. We have a canteen here where we can buy clothes and anything we want. Prison fare is very good-new rolls and coffee and fresh b.u.t.ter. Not bad! I had a very decent guard when I was coming up on the train; he got me food, and when one man tried to get in to attack me he threw him off the train. I am afraid I am out of the firing line until the war ends (worse luck). I am in no danger of being shot unless I try to bolt, which I shan't do. I shot the man who was carrying their colours, and he wanted to have me shot, but luckily n.o.body seemed to agree with him. The next time I saw him he had been bandaged up-he was shot through the shoulder-and he dashed up and shook me by the hand and shouted, "Mein Freund, mein Freund."

On November 25 other letters appeared in the _Times_. One was from a cavalry subaltern in a German fortress:

You ask about money; they provide lights and firing and all the men's food. The officers get 16s. a week and buy their own.

Quite sufficient, as it is cheap. I have learnt German fairly quickly and do interpreter now in the shop for the men, though, I am afraid, _tant mal que bien_. One of the officials here used to be a professor, and is very kind trying to teach us.

Thanks for the warm underclothes, and most awfully for the footb.a.l.l.s. We have quite good matches.... It is better not to try to send any public news of any kind from England; people having been stupid trying to smuggle letters in cakes and things, and it only makes trouble for everyone.

A Captain writes:

For dinner at 1 p.m. we are given soup, meat and vegetables....

Supper takes place at 7 o'clock and consists of tea, sausages or meat and potatoes.... We receive 5 a month as pay, of which 1s.

6d. is deducted for food each day. We have a canteen here at which we can buy everything we want, ... so there is no need to send me anything at all, except perhaps those small 7d. editions of novels.

An English lady wrote early in 1915 from Munich:

I must tell you I had permission to visit a wounded English officer, a cousin, and I think it would rea.s.sure many people at home to know how warmly he speaks of the great kindness that has been shown him now for five months, as well as the skill and attention of the doctors.-(_Times_, March 17, 1915.)

Here, too, is a letter from Lieut.-Observer J. E. P. Harvey, an officer of the Bedfordshire Yeomanry, and attached to the Royal Flying Corps:

I met one of the pilots of the German machines that had attacked us. He could speak English well and we shook hands after a most thrilling fight. I had brought down his machine with my machine-gun, and he had to land quite close to where I landed.

He had a bullet through his radiator and petrol tank, but neither he nor his observer was touched. I met two German officers that knew several people that I knew, and they were most awfully kind to me. They gave me a very good dinner of champagne and oysters, etc., and I was treated like an honoured guest. I then came by train the next day to Mainz, where I was confined in a room by myself for two days. I have now been moved into a general room with eight other English officers, where we sleep and eat. We are treated very well, and play hockey and tennis in the prison yard.-(_News of the World_, February 27, 1916.)

Miss Colenso gives the following account, which appeared in the _Daily News_ of June 28, 1918:

A minister friend of mine told me the story of a young Scottish boy of his acquaintance, now a military prisoner in Germany-I forget for the moment in which camp. This boy received a letter from home one day telling of his mother's serious illness and the doctor's verdict that she could only live a few weeks. The German Commandant, finding the boy in great distress, asked him what was the matter, and on learning the cause of his grief, said: "Would you like to go home to your mother?" The boy sprang up, exclaiming indignantly, "How can you mock me when you know it is impossible?" "But you shall go, my boy," said the commandant. "I will pay your return fare on condition that you give me your word of honour to come back here." The boy went home to Scotland and remained by his mother's side for about three weeks till her death, when, true to his word, he returned to Germany.

The writer of "Under the Clock" considers that "well-attested" stories of this kind should be given publicity. It is even more necessary to examine the "attestation" of the other kinds of stories, for all the bias is against the enemy, and demand is apt to create supply.

MERSEBURG, DBERITZ.

I pa.s.s on now to a report made by a United States Official. The American Consul writes from Leipzig under date of November 16, 1914: "On Sat.u.r.day afternoon, the 14th instant, I visited the military concentration camp near Merseburg, where some 10,000 prisoners of war are interned. The object of my visit was to investigate the claim of a French prisoner that he is an American subject. The result of my observations regarding the welfare and humane treatment of the prisoners at large was a surprise to me.... Separated by nationality, these prisoners are housed in wooden buildings, well built, ventilated and heated.... They sleep upon straw mattresses in well-warmed quarters, and, as far as I could judge, are as well or better housed than labourers upon public works in the United States. The prisoners are fed three times a day. Breakfast consists of coffee and bread. Dinner consists of vegetable and meat, soup and bread, and for supper they are given bread and coffee. I was informed that many of the prisoners have some money, and that they are allowed to buy whatever else they may wish to eat. If I may judge from the mounds of empty beer bottles at hand, there is evidence in support of this statement. The prisoners appeared to be in good health and cheerful, many of them engaging in games and other pastimes."

The diet described must be frightfully monotonous. Feeding has throughout been one of the German difficulties. "Germany claims to hold 433,000 prisoners of war," wrote an anonymous American journalist (probably in November, 1914); "the housing and feeding of so great a number must be a tremendous strain upon resources drained by the necessities of war." The numbers must now exceed two million. The Press article referred to [Misc. No. 7 (1915)] is severe on the misery of camp life, and the verminousness of the men (they were of mixed nationality) in the camp at Doberitz which he visited. (See, however, the further official reports quoted below at p. 9). But the writer does not confine his condemnation to one side. "One hears of battles in which no quarter is granted. There are stories of one side or the other refusing an armistice to permit the other to gather its wounded. Each side is desperately determined to win, and neither is counting the cost. So men must rust in prison camps until the struggle is over." The monotony in this case seems to have been varied by fights between the prisoners of different nationality, each set considering that the others had not done their part in the war. We need not be contemptuous about that. The monotony of the prisoners' life must tend to produce the maximum degree of mutual friction. There is absolutely no privacy for the prisoner of war. To be forced to remain, day and night, for months and years in idleness, with a crowd of others, not of one's own choice is, I believe, one of the psychological factors which make internment (especially to many civilians) decidedly worse than imprisonment in a criminal prison.

CORRESPONDENCE AND PACKAGES.

My next doc.u.ment ill.u.s.trates the fact that each side makes similar complaints about the other. Telegram received by American Emba.s.sy, London, December 23, 1914, 22nd from Berlin Emba.s.sy:

"Foreign Office reports receiving many complaints that money and packages sent German military and civilian prisoners in enemy countries from Germany do not reach addresses. Please secure information for Department to forward German Foreign Office whether money and other postal matter will be delivered to such prisoners promptly and intact.-BRYAN, Washington."

There is no doubt that many letters and parcels have _not_ reached German prisoners in England. Lord Robert Cecil has fully allowed this.

(_Times_ report. March 11, 1915.) In spite of this, I have no doubt that the British authorities have done their best to expedite delivery. I would suggest that this is probably the case on the other side, too. We shall indeed later come upon some definite statements in support of this view. One frequent cause of the non-arrival of parcels in Germany has been convincingly described by Mr. Ian Malcolm, M.P. (_Daily Mail_, November 8, 1916, and Reprint):

I did not approach this subject quite "new to the game." I had already visited general post offices in England, Switzerland and elsewhere, and had seen thousands, literally thousands, of food parcels intended for our prisoners of war in Germany falling to bits and incapable of being forwarded for want of skilled packing. The sight was enough to make angels weep. To think that so much self-sacrifice had been exercised in humble homes to save up bits of dripping, crusts of bread, broken cigarettes, and what not, in order that these should reach son or brother or sweetheart in Germany, yet packed so badly albeit by loving hands, that in the first rough and tumble of the post the paper burst, the string came undone, and the contents of a dozen parcels fell in an inextricable jumble upon the floor.