SWISS WAR NEWS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14287, 2 May 1917, Page 3

SWISS WAR NEWS.

RICH HUNS REMOVE THEIR MONEY.

BEFORE THE DELUGE

A special correspondent, who ha* toured Switzerland, gives below the views of the Swiss on the Avar :—

One evening m Bale I was the guest at a small private party. The subject under discussion •n'sas peace. In fact during my first fortnight m Switzerland it was difficult to induce people to talk of anything else. Although the Ententehad replied to President Wilson and the subject was shelved, I found column? about peaoe m every edition of the Swiss papers printed m German— an effeot no doubt traceable to German propaganda.

All the German<-Swiss 1 .ppoke to'wanted the war to stop. An arrangement ought to be made, they said, and the matter ondert One and all overlooked the fact that this war is not an action before the civil courts, but a criminal .action conducted m order to bring the Germanic Powers .to book for a long series of crimes. My neighbor at the supper party argued that the war ought to stop because of the sufferings inflicted on neutrals. "Look at Switzerland !" he exclaimed. "Well, I hay.--been looking," I replied, "and up till now I have discovered very few signs of the alleged suffering." * "Why, just think of our hotels," he retorted. The remark was most helpful, for i focussed something m German-Swiss opinion which up till then I had faiW to comprehend. To this gentleman anr' lo thousands of ,his compatriots Swiss, hotels count for more than all tlie vital issues for wliich hundreds of thousands have laid down their Lives. It is th-r parochial view, pure and simple, but it came as a shook. Happily there if a- more refreshing, side to the question. Whatever the .Swi^s may think, we must not forget how they have acted. This little country is caring for a large number of interned prisoners of war — 18,000 French, IQ,OOO Germans anr' about 2000 British v/uid Belgians. Up till '.now no other 'neutral country has volunteered to share the task, which from the administrative point of view alone is a great burden. Well over 100,XX}0 civilians "evacu ated" by the Germans from occupied territories have passed through Switzerland. They have been cared for anr" tended by * members . of the Swiss IW /Cross and travelled, free of charge or the State railways.'