A MENAGE TO GIRLS.

Colonist, Volume LXI, Issue 14959, 6 January 1919, Page 2

A MENAGE TO GIRLS.

THE GEItIvIAN PRISONER

ENGLISH CLERGUIAIv'S PROTEST.

We are'smashing the Germans on the battlefield; wo have gone far towards eradicating his influence in our social, political au'd commercial life; yet in one •.•espect we-are strangely remiss in our treatment of an inplacable foe, wrote the Rev. F. A. Gage Hall, vicar of Tis.sington, Derbyshire, recently. I refer to tho extraordinarily lax system of supervision over prisoners of war, who, in this part of the world, at any rate, are allowed to roam the countryside apparently at their own sweet will. This excess of freedom has been justified on two grounds: they are doing useful work, and their chance of escape is very small. The latter point need not bo considered seriously, for apart from the officers, who .in any case do not work, I do not think that many of the prisoners have any immediate hope or intention of getting back to the Fatherland. It does not follow, however, that they are not ready.and anxious to serve their country in other ways. They seize the opportunity most easily^ afforded them, and never neglect a chance of fraternising, particularly with girls in rural parts. The German is little less dangerous on the whine than when he is hacking his way through. Just as the "kamerad" trick was used as a ruse to play upon the better feelings of the British Tommy; fco is their captivity made to serve their nefarious purpose "in exciting sympathy with the girls Strange though it may seem, the initial feeling of contempt only too frequently gives way to a feeling of friendship for the insidious German. This may not be apparent to dwellers in large cities, but it is no freak of imagination. Perhaps you read ao'ont the Lincolnshire girls fined for exchanging rings wifcJi Prussian Guardsmen; no doubt you burned with indignation at I the story of the four unspeakable Germans who assaulted a girl of sixteen ir> J : Berkshire. Theso are not isolated, in.l stances, as prosecutions all orer the I country prove, and alas! only a very ■ small percent?ae of those cases are ever! jjbi-oiight into tho limelight. \ It is' lamentable that any English girl; should be so lacking in self-respect 3an i *o have any association with these Xfer-' man prisoners. But just as the lawi protects the foolish youuc; officer from I the_ cardsharper, so must these girls bo! withheld from rushing to their own ruin.! It can he done, but only by putting! these girls under proper supervision, and' doing away with- the system which autnps thorn down promiscuously in out- ' or-che-way farms where, instead'of work-! mg in gangs, Jhey arc employed in twee.-: and threes- J'erhans tho most flagrant i^ 0*^ 31 was t!iat sported from the Ivetirord District Council of prisoners being escorted to .and from their work by .young girls m the enforced absence or tueir proper guard. The German financier may strike underhand blows at our commerce the spy may Bond a good ship and a thousand souls to a watery grave, but an oven deadlier menace is that which threatens the morals' of the countryside.