WAR ON WOUNDED

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9630, 10 April 1917, Page 3

WAR ON WOUNDED

UNFORTUNATE POSITION NO EXCHANGES POSSIBLE WITH GERMANY. The unfortunate position of prisoners of war in enemy countries was fully described by Lord Newton, on bcbalf of the Foreign Office, in the House of Lord on February ‘22nd. In Austria, Lord Newton observed, there were about 200 British civilians interned and only two or three military officers prisoners. In Bulgaria there were no civilian prisoners, and probably 500 or 600 military prisoner's. In Turkey it was cxtremely r difficult to obtain accurate information, and so far as was known there wore TOO civilians interned, while of military prisoners there were about 2000 white, and BSOO Indian officers and men. These figures were supplied by Turkish military authorities, and it was impossible to regard them as accurate. They did not account for a large number of missing men. In Germany there were about 1500 civilians and 31,000 or 35,000 military prisoners.

TURKISH EXCHANGE PROSPECT. In regard to Austria there were arrangements whereby civilians over 61 were repatriated, but very few exchanges had taken place, and in view of the preposterous proposal made by the Austrian Government it was unlikely that much progress would be made in that direction, because they had suggested that in return for 200 British civilians we should hand over no fewer than 10,000 or 11,000 AustroHungarian civilians interned here or in the colonies. On every other question the conduct of the Austrian Government in respect of prisoners had been a complete contrast to that of Germany, and in many respects we had little to complain of. British subjects had been treated with a great deal of consideration in Austria-Hungary. We had been unable to arrange any method of exchange for the military prisoners in Bulgaria. As to Turkey, we wore acting in com junction with the French Government, and, had proposed that all Turkish civilians in the custody of the British and French Governments should be exchanged for all British and French subjects in Turkey. We were about to make a far-reaching proposal of exchange which he hoped would affect 20 per cent, of the military prisoners in Turkey. He trusted that the proposal would he accepted. PRISONERS IN GERMANY. Coming to Germany, there was no arrangement except that for the exchange of men over 45. Nothing was gained by exaggerating the condition of the prisoners in Germany and elsewhere. Their condition was sufficiently bad without exaggerating, and there was neither sense nor truth in representing, as was constantly done, that Ruhleben was a sort of unspeakable hell upon earth and that every British internment camp was a Paradise , compared with it. It was a great mistake to suppose that civilians were undergoing greater hardships than those which vyere undergone by the military prisoners in Germany. Mr Gerard, the American Ambassador, had stated that the civilians in Ruhleben were undergoing less hardships than many military prisoners in some camps in Germany. The conditions in Ruhleben had greatly improved recently because the German Government had permitted - tho British prisoners to organise the camp on their own lines so as to make' the conditions more tolerable. He could not understand why Bishop Bury had been attacked in this country. He went to Ruhleben *by permission of the German Government and lived in tho camp. Because he had given an accurate account of what ho saw he was denounced as a pro-German. If ono could not believe a Bishop, who was ono to believe? (Laughter.) Of -the 650 prisoners at Ruhleben over 45 about 110 did not want to return to this country. It might bo assumed that a corresponding proportion of the rest also desired to remain. That meant a considerable reduction in the 4500. EXCHANGES SUSPENDED.

The Swiss Government had intimated that they could not accept any further contingents of exchanged prisoners. He regretted that exchanges were at present, ho hoped only temporarily, entirely suspended. The Germans, in pursuance of their policy of cold-blood-ed murder, had announced that they were just as ready to sink their own incapacitated wounded ns they were to sink ours, and the result was that .we were unable to exchange the totally incapacitated. As the Swiss could not accommodate more prisoners tho visits of the Swiss Commission were suspended, and the exchange of men of over 45 yas also temporarily suspended. The only exchanges that were likely to occur in the immediate future were exchanges on a very small scale of invalid civilians.

The arrangement for the exchange of civilians over 45 only came into force on Jaiyiary Ist; 370 German civilians had been sent back, while the Germans had liberated over 70 British, of whom only 25 had reached this country. The presumption was that the balance were waiting in Holland for an opportunity to .come here. The suspension of the arrangement was nothing but a relajrsc into barbarity on the part of the German Government. He believed that they cared little for the fate of German prisonedi, and his firm conviction was that they were only interested in tho fate of a few highly-placed personages who happened to be in our hands. The persons who were deserving of consideration were the officers and men who were captured in the early days of the war. They had suffered more than the civilians at Ruhlebeu. The House could rest assured that the Government would not cease doing all they could for British prisoners. Viscount Bryce suggested that arrangements might be made for the exchange of prisoners into Norway and Sweden. x Lord Newton replied that, in the view of the Admiralty, that was perfectly impossible. When it was proposed a fortnight ago to send 300 incapacitated Germans' in a hospital ship, the German Government replied that the hospital ship would be torpedoed, although it had their own wounded, so the Admiralty decided not to send it. If the Dutch boats resumed sailing ho would do his utmost to secure the repatriation of men over 40.