WAR PRISONERS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 287, 4 December 1941, Page 7

WAR PRISONERS

CAMPS FOR RUSSIANS Conditions For Britons Are Satisfactory United Press Association.—Copyrig-ht. Rec. 11.30 a.m. LONDON, Dec. 3. German camps for prisoners of war are being completely reorganised for the accommodation of Russians, says The Times Lisbon correspondent. The new arrangements indicate that 3,000,000 Russians are expected. Some Russians have been already drafted as far westward as the British prison camps, but the two nationalities are segregated. The morale of the British prisoners is high. There is no lack of sporting, education and occupational facilities. The German authorities are co-operating with the Y.M.C.A. in providing for the religious needs of the prisoners. The German brutality associated with the last war is rarely evident as far as Britons are concerned. The Germans are abiding by the Geneva Covenant, but for Britain's Allies the conditions are not so good.

The Poles are in the worst ? position because for them the machinery for neutral intervention is least effective.

Russia has not signed any prisoners of war convention and she is anxious to invoke the convention operative before The Hague Convention, but Germany has not yet consented. If means are not found for including the Russians in the food distribution efforts, which are being made on behalf of other prisoners, it is feared that a new harvest of death will be added to the sorrows of Europe.