THE EXCHANGE OF WAR PRISONERS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17324, 25 May 1918, Page 6

THE EXCHANGE OF WAR PRISONERS.

'It is not surprising that tho publication in Home newspapers of revelations of brutal ill-treatment of British prisoners in Germany has led to a strong agitation for action on the part of the Government to secure an exchange of prisoners as speedily as possible. The fact that France, after somewhat prolonged negotiations, has • concluded an arrangement with Germany for a farreaching exchange of prisoners is calculated to lend weight to tho pressure now being exerted on the British Government. It had been supposed that the treatment of British prisoners at Germany's hands had undergone a much-needed improvement as the result of the representations of the Imperial Government and of its threats of retaliation until a change for the better was discernible. Whatever improvement may have been made in some camps, recent disclosures make it clear, that British prisoners have in others been subjected to cruelties and barbarities in keeping with the worst of the German practice. Small wonder is it that the exchange of war prisoners is urged as necessary in the interests of humanity. Unfortunately, the question is not so easy of settlement as it may at first glance appear to be. Other considerations than those based on humanitariau grounds enter the case. To appreciate these it is necessary to have some understanding of the basis upon which negotiations have been conducted in the past for the exchange of prisoners and of the difficulties that have presented themselves. Lord Newton has stated that the British Government is most anxious to adopt action on lines similar to that taken by the French Government, and it is now reported, though apparently without official authority, that negotiations between Great Britain and Germany will shortly be opened at The Hague. Unless, however, a basis of exchange can be arrived at such as will eliminate obstacles that have hampered the exchange of civilian prisoners it is difficult to anticipate a favourable issue. In the past Germany has, with her usual magnanimity, expressed herself strongly in favour of a general repatriation of prisoners on an " all for sill" basis. In the matter of civilian prisoners she would be glad to get a return of 15,000 Germans, the majority of them old reservists, for about 1000 British. The British military authorities are not enamoured of any proposal of this nature. They are naturally averse from giving back to Germany, ■yfrhose attitude in this matter presumably remains unaltered, in return for a disproportionate small number of British subjects, sufficient human material to bolster up appreciably the enemy's dwindling reserves. They logically urge that such a step would tend to prolong the war. The idea that the difficulty might be solved by the internment of prisoners in neutral countries seems to be ruled out by the reluctance of neutral Governments to find room for them. Whatever the British Government may do in tho matter of negotiations, it is certainly incumbent upon it to take the firmest measures possible to assure reasonable treatment to British prisoners in Germany.