Chapter M: H. Holubowicz (2)

"It is only by holding together those forces which have saved our two empires now," he asserted, "that we can protect ourselves against the future danger that menaces us in the form of a fresh attempt on the part of our adversaries to attain what they are this time unable to attain." The world is today divided into two parts, Count Julius observes, and he declares that it would be illusion and fanaticism to believe that things will be otherwise in the near future. He wishes to make it clear that the Central Powers are not responsible for this, and maintains that the new Dual Alliance is formed to insure that another already existing alliance shall not imperil "our existence and our future." He wishes also to point out most emphatically that the new Dual Alliance, like the old one, is purely defensive.

He believes that when this war is over no nation will be inclined to pursue an aggressive foreign policy, but he, nevertheless, maintains that guarantees must be given that neither of the contracting parties shall be involved in any plans of conquest and hegemony cherished by the other. He insists, furthermore, that the peace concluded with their defeated enemies by the victorious allied Central Powers must manifest clearly that it is no obstacle to the development of an international law which would prevent the waging of war as much as possible, and would settle the armament question on an international basis, and also that this alliance does not wish to continue to fight after peace has been concluded, but will pursue a peaceable policy in every respect; that it does not wish to be exclusive, but is desirous of effecting a friendly rapprochement with the countries today opposed to it.

Finally, he expressed the opinion that the interest of the Dual Alliance requires that "our relationship also with Bulgaria and with Turkey shall be made stable and shall be strengthened."

THE TWO EMPERORS

The following exchange of telegrams between Emperor Karl and the Kaiser was made public on May 15:

At the moment of leaving the favored soil of the German Empire
on my way home I feel impelled again warmly to greet you and to
express my heartiest thanks not only for the very gracious but
also for the truly friendly reception which you gave me yesterday.
I am highly satisfied with our harmonious conference. From my
heart and in true friendship I say may we soon meet again. KARL.

The Kaiser telegraphed in reply:

Many thanks for your friendly telegram. I am exceedingly glad
that you are so satisfied with your visit here. It is a great
joy to me also to have seen you and to have again established in
our detailed discussions our entire accord regarding aims which
guide us. Their realization will bring great blessings on our
empires. I hope soon to be in a position to take advantage of your
kind invitation. Hearty greetings to Zita and yourself. In true
friendship. WILHELM.

CHANCELLOR'S STATEMENT

Count Hertling, the German Chancellor, in a statement regarding the new understanding between the two empires, said that the agreement had not been signed, but the basic ideas had been agreed upon. He added:

The deepening and further development of the work created by the
great statesman Bismarck and by Count Andrassy will assuredly
have beneficial consequences for Germany and Hungary. I need
not specially emphasize the fact that all efforts aiming at the
improvement of German and Hungarian relations and at bringing the
peoples closer together have my warmest sympathy. M Clemenceau,
who indulged in the illusion that he would be able to sever our
firm alliance, will now be able to see from the results of the
negotiations the fruits of his intrigues. The new Dual Alliance
will, in particular, comprise two important sections, namely, the
economic and military agreements.

The economic union of Germany and Austria-Hungary is not aimed at
any State whatever. I am quite prepared for aggressive intentions
and tendencies to be ascribed to us by our opponents, and the
watchword given out by the Entente of an economic war after the
war against the Central Powers can now go ahead. This assertion,
however, is entirely false. We want nothing but our place in the
sun. We are quite entitled to harmonize our common interests and
to act together. As regards the military side of the discussions,
I must emphasize the fact that our agreements for the future have
no aggressive character. We only desire the consolidation of our
present relations. We also desire to remain just as closely bound
together after the war as during the war, which has drawn us
together.

If the world should one day unite in an International Peace League
Germany would unhesitatingly and joyfully join in. Unfortunately
the present conditions give very little hope of that. Our desire
is to win and to preserve peace. Our policy has ever been a policy
of peace, just as our alliance with the monarchy is a peace
alliance; that is, an alliance for the preservation of peace. We
are now fighting for our existence and for peace, which we also
long for.

I am still optimistic enough to believe that we shall have peace
this year. I say "optimistic," as the speeches which we hear from
Entente statesmen still talk of crushing the Central Powers. It
might have been thought that the attacks on Mr. Lloyd George,
which, after all, indicate a strengthening of the peace idea,
would have created a better basis for possibilities of peace.
That, however, has not been the case. At the moment I cannot say
more than that I cherish firm confidence that further events in
the west will bring us nearer to a speedy end of the war, and that
the alliance of Germany and Austria-Hungary, which has been tested
and extended during the war, will then bring renewed prosperity
and rich blessings.

The Imprisoned ex-Czar in the Crimea

Djuber Castle, in the Crimea, became the compulsory residence of the Romanoff family in April, 1918, after their removal from Tobolsk, Siberia. A correspondent of the Frankfurter Zeitung who visited the ex-Czar in May gives this account of his new prison home:

"The castle is splendidly situated with a commanding view of
the sea. The vicinity is embellished by beautiful residences.
Twenty-five Soviet soldiers form the special guard of the former
imperial family; armed with rifles and machine guns and hand
grenades, they are under the orders of one officer. These soldiers
are determined to prevent any attempt at flight, but, on the other
hand, they are also firmly resolved to protect the ex-imperial
family against any odious attack. Till recently the Romanoffs
spent money freely on their garrison, but now they have financial
difficulties, and can no longer pay the soldiers so well. The
presence of the Soviet soldiers is sometimes irksome to the
imperial family, but at times they are also glad to show their
appreciation at being protected against the raids of brigands
who infest the country. * * * Grand Duke Nicholas refused to be
interviewed, declaring that as a private individual he had nothing
to say."

Exchanging Thousands of Prisoners

Franco-German Agreement, Signed at Berne, Provides
for Release of More Than 300,000 Captives

The exchange of certain classes of French, Belgian, and German prisoners, totaling about 330,000, began on May 15, 1918, in accordance with an agreement arranged at Berne, Switzerland, by a conference of French and German delegates held there from April 2 to April 26, and later ratified by both Governments. It was announced at the same time that Italy had completed a similar arrangement.

The news of the Franco-German agreement came as a complete surprise to Great Britain and the other allies, and aroused an instant demand for negotiations looking to a release of British prisoners on similar terms. There was a tendency in some quarters to criticise the French Government for its separate action in the matter. After a lively debate on the subject in the House of Commons on May 28, Lord Newton, head of the Prisoners of War Department, stated that the British Government had "already entered into negotiations with the German Government with a view to arranging a wide scheme of exchange, following, broadly speaking, the agreement recently concluded between France and Germany." On the same day a dispatch from Holland announced that both the British and German Governments had informed the Netherlands Government that they wished to send delegates to The Hague shortly to discuss matters relating to the exchange of prisoners.

TOTALS OF PRISONERS

Between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000 prisoners have been taken on both sides since the beginning of the war. The latest exact figures on the subject were published in the Summer of 1917, when the Central Powers held 2,874,271 prisoners, and the Entente Allies held a total of 1,284,050. Germany alone had 1,690,731 prisoners, including 17,474 officers; Austria-Hungary, 1,092,055; Bulgaria, 67,582, and Turkey, 23,903, a total of 2,874,271, of whom 27,620 are officers. This total was made up of the following nationalities:

Total In
Number. Germany.

Russian 2,080,699 1,212,007
French 368,607 367,124
Serbian 154,630 25,879
Italian 98,017
Rumanian 79,033 10,157
British 45,241 33,129
Belgian 42,437 42,435
Montenegrin 5,607

The British prisoners of war not in Germany were divided between Bulgaria and Turkey.

The prisoners of the Allies, not including 40,000 Austrians and Bulgarians captured by the Serbians and now in Italy or 20,000 Turkish prisoners in Egypt, were distributed as follows:

Total In In In In
Number. Engl'd. France. Russia. Italy.

German 594,050 85,000 259,050 250,000
Austr'n 630,000 550,000 80,000

At the same time Switzerland was sheltering 26,000 interned war prisoners, of whom 16,000 were French, English, and Belgian, while 10,000 were German. In addition, 7,000 relatives were visiting interned men in Switzerland. Most of these interned prisoners will be released by the new agreements, while other thousands will take their place.

FRANCO-GERMAN TERMS

The Franco-German agreement, which, being the first exhaustive document of its kind in this war, will serve as a model for those that follow, provides that all privates and noncommissioned officers who have been prisoners in France and Germany for eighteen months shall be exchanged, man for man and rank for rank, in the order of priority of capture. Officers over 48 years of age are to be released, and certain other classes of officers are to be interned in Switzerland, while the French and Belgian interned soldiers already in Switzerland are to be released. It is estimated that there are 150,000 prisoners on each side who will be exchanged under the Franco-German agreement alone, and as transportation difficulties will prevent the moving of more than 10,000 a month each way, the repatriation of the 300,000 or more who have been in captivity since 1914 will require at least fifteen months. The interned civilians, it is stated, should all be back in their own countries in six months. The release terms are to go on applying to later prisoners as soon as their captivity amounts to eighteen months.

(© _International Film Service_)]

(_British Official Photo from Underwood_)]

The status of citizens of occupied territory is profoundly modified by the provisions of the agreement, which expressly stipulate that deportations shall cease. Both sides bind themselves not to use released soldiers or civilians in war work. The validity of Germany's promise on this point was a theme of bitter comment in England when the terms of the French agreement first became known.

SUMMARY OF DOCUMENT

The most important articles in the Franco-German convention, which is very long, may be summarized as follows:

Article 1. Direct repatriation, without regard for rank or
numbers, for sub-officers, Corporals, and soldiers who have been
in captivity at least eighteen months at the time when this
agreement goes into force: (a) who have reached the age of 40
years and are not yet 45, and are fathers of at least three living
children; (b) who have reached the age of 45, but are not yet 48.

Art. 2. Direct repatriation, man for man and rank for rank, for
sub-officers, Corporals, and soldiers in captivity for at least
eighteen months, and not included in any of the classes mentioned
in Article 1.

Art. 3. In the exchange provided for in Article 2 no distinction
will be made between sub-officers. Corporals will be ranked with
them.

Art. 4. Internment in Switzerland, without regard for rank or
numbers, for all officers in captivity at least eighteen months:
(a) who have reached the age of 40 years and are not yet 45, and
are the fathers of at least three living children; (b) who have
reached the age of 45 years, but are not yet 48.

Art. 5. Internment in Switzerland, man for man, regardless of
rank, for sub-officers in captivity at least eighteen months and
not included in the foregoing categories.

Art. 6. The order of priority for repatriation and internment
shall be determined by priority of captivity and by equal duration
of imprisonment after considering age. If this order cannot be
followed exactly, the repatriation of the prisoner who has to
remain shall not be delayed beyond two months at most.

Art. 9. Repatriation, without regard to rank or numbers, for
officers, sub-officers, Corporals, and soldiers who were taken
prisoner prior to Nov. 1, 1916, and who on April 15, 1918, find
themselves interned in Switzerland by reason of wounds or illness.

TRANSPORTING PRISONERS

Art. 10. The repatriation of these prisoners shall be effected in
the following manner: Each train in either direction shall contain
700 prisoners of war to be exchanged, man for man. Each train
coming from Germany, moreover, shall contain 100 French prisoners
of war designated in Article 1, and each train from France shall
contain 50 German prisoners of the same category, until the
total in this class on both sides is exhausted. The repatriation
shipments should contain a monthly average of 15 per cent. of
noncommissioned officers and 85 per cent. of privates.

Art. 11. At the beginning of each series of ten trains of private
soldiers there shall be formed on each side a convoy of 400
officers to be interned in Switzerland in accordance with Article
5. This convoy shall include, besides, 100 French officers
coming from Germany and 50 German officers coming from France
to be interned under Article 4, until the total on each side is
exhausted.

Art. 12. The first two trainloads of officers provided for in
Article 11 shall start from Lyons, the third from Constance, the
fourth from Lyons, and so on alternately. The first ten trains
of private soldiers arranged for under Article 10 shall start
from Constance; the ten trains of the second series shall go from
Lyons, and so on alternately.

Art. 13. Prisoners of war who do not yet come under the conditions
prescribed in Articles 1-5 shall be repatriated or interned in
Switzerland, as the case may be, as rapidly as the prescribed
conditions are fulfilled.

Art. 14. Officers in sound health who are interned in Switzerland
either under the present agreement or under the Berne agreement of
March 15, 1918, cannot be repatriated save in exceptional cases
and solely for serious illness or accident.

Art. 16. Article 19 of the Berne convention of March 15, 1918,
concerning the employment of repatriated soldiers shall be
applicable to prisoners benefiting from the present agreement.
Released Belgian prisoners can be employed in France under the
same conditions as repatriated French prisoners.

Art. 17. All the foregoing provisions are to apply to German
prisoners of war captured by Belgian troops and to Belgian
prisoners taken by German troops. The Belgian officers,
sub-officers, and soldiers shall be included in the repatriated
and interned French groups in the proportion of one Belgian for
ten Frenchmen, up to the exhaustion of the number of German war
prisoners who were captured by Belgian troops and who come under
the foregoing provisions.

Art. 18. In the repatriation and internment of prisoners under
Articles 1-5 only men in sound health are to be counted. Ill or
wounded prisoners will continue to be repatriated directly or
interned in Switzerland under the conditions laid down under
Articles 7-18 of the Berne agreement of March 15, 1918.

Art. 20. The provisions contained in Articles 1-19 of the present
convention shall cease to be in force on Aug. 1, 1919, if one of
the two Governments shall have given notice to that effect to the
Swiss Political Department before May 1, 1919.

FOOD FOR PRISONERS

The articles following those just summarized relate to the
treatment of prisoners remaining in captivity. The most important
are these:

Art. 25. The daily rations of officers must be sufficient in
quantity and quality, especially as regards meat, vegetables, and
seasoning, after taking into account the food restrictions imposed
upon the civil population. The management of food supplies by the
prisoner officers themselves is to be favored in every way.

Art. 26. The daily rations allotted to imprisoned privates in
Germany and in France must contain a minimum of 2,000 calories for
men not working, 2,500 calories for ordinary workers, and 2,850
calories for prisoners doing heavy work.

Art. 27. Prisoners of war shall, in general, receive the same
ration of meat as the civil population.

Art. 28. The minimum ration of bread allotted to imprisoned German
officers, sub-officers, and soldiers in France is fixed at 350
grams a day. It will be increased to 400 for prisoners working
outside the camp. The minimum bread ration allotted to French
war prisoners in Germany is the same as that for the civilian
population and is never allowed to go below 250 grams.

Art. 29. The German Government authorizes for all war prisoners a
collective assignment of bread at the rate of two kilograms (four
pounds) of bread per man per week. The providing and distributing
of these consignments of food will continue to be assured for
all the camps and detachments affected by the present agreement.
The provisions are to be sent free and by fast freight. The
consignments are to be distributed without any charge whatever and
by the most direct and rapid routes available. The empty sacks can
be returned to the country of origin.

Art. 33. The provisions of Articles 25-32 are applicable to
Belgian prisoners in Germany as well as to German prisoners who
have fallen into the power of the Belgian Government and are now
in France.

LIBERATING CIVILIANS

The second part of the agreement deals solely with civilian prisoners:

Art. 1. Civilian prisoners, regardless of age or sex, are
authorized, upon their own demand and under conditions hereafter
stated, to leave the country where they are held; this applies
alike to interned persons and to those who have been liberated
after a period of internment.

Art. 2. The word internment is to include all civilians who,
whatever the cause or date of their commitment, are or have been
detained in any place of internment against their will.

Art. 3. Civilians who at the beginning of the war had their
domicile or habitual residence either in the State where they are
or on the free territory of the other State will be conducted to
the Swiss frontier, whence they can proceed to Germany if they
come from France or to France if they come from Germany.

Art. 4. Civilians who at the beginning of the war had their homes
in a locality of the occupied regions will be sent back there.
They can ask to be taken to the Swiss frontier, and the request
will be complied with whenever military necessity does not stand
in the way. In cases where, for military reasons, the return
of such persons to their homes is impossible, the civilians in
question shall be sent to the frontier or to another part of the
occupied territory, which will be assigned to them, as nearly as
possible, in accordance with their wishes.

Art. 5. If a civilian desires to remain in the territory or State
where he now is interned, he will be authorized to do so on
condition that his residence there shall be permanent.

Art. 9. The civilians interned in Switzerland at the moment when
this agreement goes into effect will be freed from internment.

Art. 12. Civilians who return to their country under the present
agreement cannot be employed in military service, either at the
front, or in the war zone, or in the interior of occupied enemy
territory, or in the territories or possessions of an allied State.

Art. 13. The arrangements for the liberation of civilians shall
be put into operation immediately after this agreement goes into
effect. Reckoning from that date, the transportation ought to be
finished in a space of not more than three months for civilians
now actually interned and six months for those interned at some
time in the past. This transportation will be furnished free.

The following articles deal with the population of occupied territory:

Art. 17. The inhabitants of occupied territory cannot be compelled
to work, except under the following rules: The work must be done
under the best material and moral conditions, with due regard
to personal aptitudes, social conditions, sex, age, and the
physical status of the workers. Members of a family, so far as
possible, must not be separated. Their labors must never involve
any obligation to take part in war operations against their own
country. Work can be demanded only (a) as service for the needs
of the army of occupation, within the limitations laid down in
Article 52 of The Hague Convention regarding war on land; (b) with
the object of preventing idleness on the part of persons capable
of working, who are supported at public expense, and who have
refused voluntary employment; (c) with the object of providing, in
the absence of other means, for the existence of the population.

Art. 18. Persons compelled to work under Article 17 must be
employed, with the exception mentioned, in the locality of their
domicile or in its immediate neighborhood. If for military or
economic reasons an inhabitant has to be removed from his home in
order to put him at work, this removal shall not in any case take
him outside the occupied territory, nor shall it bring persons
whose residence is more than thirty kilometers from the firing
line within the limits of that zone.

Suitable provision shall be made for housing and food for workers
who shall receive fair remuneration, and, if need be, medical
service. Besides rest periods and normal changes they shall be
given permission as often as possible to visit their families,
with whom they shall also be allowed to correspond and exchange
parcels.

Art. 19. Aside from the cases designated in Article 18, and aside
from the case of a total or partial evacuation of a locality for
military reasons, an inhabitant of occupied territory cannot be
displaced from his home against his will, unless, because of his
personal attitude, his presence endangers military security or
public order.

Art. 20. No civilian coming from one of the two States can
in future be interned in the other State or in the occupied
territories. Nevertheless, a civilian who, by reason of his
personal attitude, and in the interest of military security or
public order, has to be removed from his domicile in occupied
territory, can be taken into the territory of the occupying
State. The duration of his absence from occupied territory must
be limited to a period of strict necessity and must not exceed
six months, save in exceptional cases. At the expiration of
this period the interested person is authorized to return to
the occupied territory, unless the authorities should prefer to
conduct him to the Swiss frontier.

The foregoing Franco-German agreement was entered into for an initial period of fifteen months, beginning May 15, 1918, and can be renewed for periods of three months each. A Belgo-German agreement of narrower scope was signed at Berne on March 22, 1918, relating only to civilian prisoners.

Horrors of Austrian Prisons

Inhuman Treatment of Civilian Women and Men at Internment Camps

A correspondent of The London Telegraph who spent three years in captivity in Austria has told of the horrible brutalities and cruelties suffered by interned aliens in that country. He states that there are both stations and camps for the interned prisoners, but the former are employed to exploit the captives; they are more livable than the horrible camps, but to live at a station one is charged three to ten times more for food and lodging than the current rates for citizens, and the prisoners suffer greatly for want of food and decent sanitation.

He describes the experiences of prisoners at a place called Illmau, in lower Austria, as typical of Austrian methods. A party of Englishmen were taken there shortly after they had been arrested in Vienna. They were marched along for about twenty kilometers, carrying their bags or packages. It was very cold, below freezing point, and when at last they arrived at Illmau at dark they were pushed into a kind of cellar, three or four steps below the level of the ground. A soldier locked them in, telling them they could go there and die. It was a place with no windows--only a small hole in floor. The floor, bare earth, was wet and muddy, water trickling down the walls. For every two men was one straw sack, also damp, of course, and they were so closely packed that they could not lie straight.

During the day it was so dark that they could not see each other's faces. In the morning they were told that, if they wanted to wash, they might go to the pump from which they also got their drinking water. This pump stood in the middle of a manure heap, and could only be reached by wading knee deep through the liquid pool surrounding the manure heap. The quality of the drinking water can be rather imagined than described. The treatment was most rough; the only argument a guard ever used was the butt end of his rifle--if not the bayonet. Not many words were wasted on the "Schweine - Engländer," (Swine - English.)

One day some high officials came to inspect Illmau, and after they had seen the above-ground portion, the Englishmen, who were shut up in their cellar, could hear them asking if no one was shut up in the cellars, as by rights they ought to inspect the cellars, too. But the guard officer assured them on his solemn word of honor that the cellars were empty. And those who were there did not dare to call out--they knew what their punishment would be--"stringing up" at least. This is an old punishment, where the wrists are fettered behind the back, a cord attached and passed through a ring in the wall over the prisoner's head. This cord is then pulled tight, till the man is forced right on to his toes. He is then kept so for about an hour, or till he faints. This was often done at Illmau.

After the Englishmen had been in their wet cellar for a week, and were nearly all ill with the terrible cold, they were told they could go into an upstairs room. These rooms were occupied by Serbs and Poles, nearly all very ill with consumption and very dirty. Each man received a blanket of a kind of checked pattern. When these blankets were hung up in the yard to air it was impossible to recognize their pattern--they were all a crawling mass. The room into which the Englishmen were put was so full that when they lay down at night they were almost one on the top of the other. The consumptives were always expectorating, and "sanitary arrangements" were unknown.

Drosendorf was a camp where, especially during the first months, prisoners endured the greatest hardships. They slept in sheds, in stables, sometimes on wet straw, sometimes without, and were treated as brutally as in other camps. "Here were also some women," says the correspondent, "and a lady I knew personally. When the latter was brought there with other prisoners, male and female, after walking for miles, they were shut into a large room--men and women together. There the 'sanitary arrangements' consisted of a large pail put down in the middle of the room. This lady was kept in this room with the men for some days, and not allowed to leave it." In this camp at present there are principally Russians, and rarely a day passes that a death does not occur from starvation. Here, as also in the large camp of Katzenau, the rations are as follows:

Breakfast.--Tea made of a mixture of dried birch and strawberry
leaves, and sixty grams (about two ounces) of bread.

Midday.--Soup made of turnips, or potatoes boiled and served in
the water they are boiled in, (no salt or fat,) and another sixty
grams of bread.

Evening.--Same as breakfast. At some places the same vessels are
used for washing the floors and for boiling the soup.

Estergom in Hungary was at the beginning a much dreaded place. It is surrounded on three sides by the Danube and barbed wire on the fourth. At the beginning there were over 30,000 prisoners--men, women, and children--there, but not sufficient accommodation, so many spent the nights out of doors in the rain and endless mud. Some lived in tents. Of course striking a match in the dark was strictly forbidden, and when once some one did strike one, the guards rushed in, striking about them blindly with their fixed bayonets. Once one unfortunate Scotchman was attacked very badly with dysentery in the middle of the night, and came out to ask the guard to take him to a doctor. The guard simply ordered him to go back to the tent and be quiet. When the sick man begged again, the guard knocked him down with the butt end of his rifle.

One camp, which was even lately mentioned as a disgrace in the Austrian Parliament, is Thalerhof, near Graz, the capital of Styria. Here they kept principally their own refugees from Galicia.

The London Telegraph correspondent writes of Thalerhof:

"One Polish lady who had been there for eight months is now in Raabs. She was taken away from her own house in Galicia in the clothes she stood in, allowed to take nothing with her. Eventually she reached Thalerhof. Through her sufferings there the poor woman is so broken down that it is almost impossible to get her to speak of what she has been through. A little she told me. When they--she and other ladies, priests, peasants, men of all classes--were brought to Thalerhof, the ladies (not the peasant women) were told they must come and bathe. It was many degrees below freezing point, but they were taken to a shed, open all round, down the middle of which a long row of troughs half filled with dirty water was arranged. The water had already been used by soldiers for washing their clothes. Then they were ordered to undress.

"The soldiers with fixed bayonets surrounded these ladies, while they completely undressed in the open, and forced them to bathe in the troughs, threatening them with fixed bayonets all the time and torturing them with coarse jokes. The low-class women were left quiet, not forced to bathe like this. After the bath was over they were shut up in a room crowded with people full of vermin. The ladies were always chosen for the dirty work--never the peasant women, just as the priests were set to clear up the 'sanitary arrangements,' which there consisted of a long open ditch with a board along one side of it."

CIVILIANS KIDNAPPED

"At the beginning they had a cruel way of arresting people. They would march them off as they stood, not letting them communicate with wives or friends or relatives. I know of one lady who for about two months did not know where her husband was, while he knew just as little about her. Two Serbian ladies, mother and daughter, who had also been at Salzerbad, had been staying at a little watering place in Dalmatia, where they had gone for many years. One evening, when they were only dressed in cotton dressing gowns, they were asked by an official to come down to a steamer lying at the wharf. Only for a few minutes, he said; there were just a few questions to be asked. So they went just as they were, and went on the boat with several others; some one began to ask them questions, when, to their horror, they noticed the ship was moving. They were taken right away, as they were. At every port they stopped and brought in others in the same way.

"In Fiume they landed, were handcuffed two and two, and marched through the streets to the prison. There the daughter and her 65-year-old mother, who had been also handcuffed, spent the night in a cell, with only two upright chairs in it. Next day they and all the other prisoners collected up to then were packed into third-class carriages, packed as close as they would go, and in each compartment two soldiers, fully accoutred, with fixed bayonets, and smoking like chimneys. Although it was hot Summer, all the windows were kept shut. In this way they were brought to Marburg--a journey of some four or five hours in ordinary time--but they took two days for it. All this time they had nothing to eat. People came to the train selling things; but, as all their money had been taken away from them on the boat, they could get nothing. In Marburg they were put in the prison, and kept there for eight months."

Abuses in German Prison Camps

Examples of Heartless Treatment

Quartermaster Sergeant T. Duggan of the First Coldstream Guards, who was at the prison camp at Schneidemühl (Posen) from 1914 to March, 1918, described the horrors at that camp as follows:

Prisoners of all nationalities, Russians, French, British, and
Belgians, were kept there, the majority being Russians. At the
beginning they lived in holes in the ground without any covering
whatever. Quartermaster Sergeant Duggan showed me a photograph
illustrating this condition of things, which lasted for some time,
it being a month before the prisoners had any covering over their
heads. The food was so bad that the British could never eat it.

About December, 1914, a typhus epidemic began. It continued for
four or five months. Schneidemühl has one camp divided into three
inclosures, the whole camp containing about 40,000 prisoners. The
daily average of deaths was certainly not under thirty. Another
photograph was shown to me depicting a long procession of coffins
during the epidemic. A gigantic German carrying a rifle headed
the procession, which was mainly composed of unfortunate Russian
prisoners. Anything more pathetic cannot be imagined. Photographs
were also shown me of the actual funeral service and place of
interment. These photographs showed many being buried at one time
in one long trench. After the interment, where the bodies were
deposited four deep, one above another, the Germans made mounds
surmounted by crosses, intimating that only two persons were
buried beneath each mound.

It is impossible to estimate now how many were buried altogether,
but many thousands died from this typhus epidemic. When the
epidemic broke out a terrible condition of affairs quickly ensued,
and it was not until it had been raging for a fortnight that
Russian doctors arrived on the scene. Some of the patients were
then first sent to hospital. The camp's condition, even after the
doctors' arrival, was perfectly awful.

A British merchant Captain, who was released in May from internment in a German camp, asserted under oath that after his ship was torpedoed he was locked up for twenty-four hours in the U-boat for refusing to answer questions. On the following day he was searched, and for still refusing to answer was sentenced to be shot on reaching port, or before if he should cause any annoyance. One of the principal officers called him a liar and an English swine.

Some days later the submarine put into Heligoland, and the Captain was transferred to an underground cell ashore. Later, after scanty and bad food had made him ill, he was marched with other prisoners from merchant ships to a camp. Kept naked in intense cold for three hours while his clothes were being searched, German officers stood about laughing. His garments were returned to him wet, and he was put in barracks, where his only covering was verminous blankets.

In another compound the conditions were better, but the food uneatable. The prisoners were skeletons in rags. If they fell down from weakness they were kicked and clubbed, beaten with the flat of swords, and kept standing at attention in freezing weather. They had to fight like wild beasts for food that a dog would refuse. Funerals were a daily occurrence.

Transferred to Brandenburg, where he lived five and a half months, the fare was such that, by the time his own parcels of food arrived, he had lost twenty-eight pounds in weight. Twenty degrees of frost have been registered on the inside wall of the barrack in the mornings, and in Summer the heat was intolerable and the flies and mosquitos very trying. Sanitation was almost nil; 850 Russians died at that camp earlier in the war, and several were burned to death there shortly before the Captain arrived.

Rebuilding Disabled Soldiers

Wonderful Work That Italy Is Doing to Render Maimed Men Self-Supporting

By PROFESSOR RICCARDO GALEAZZI

[Lieutenant Colonel Italian Royal Medical Corps]

_Professor Galeazzi is at the head of the Milan Institute for the After-Care of Disabled Soldiers. The article herewith presented is published by_ CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE _by arrangement with The London Chronicle._

Our idea is that the future prospects of a disabled soldier must not be built upon his assurance of obtaining a pension, but upon the rebuilding of him physically, and the retraining of him technically, to take up a self-supporting position in life.

Therefore, there must be no scrapping of the broken soldier. When we bring him from the battlefield, and find that a limb or limbs have to be amputated, the soldier thus wounded is placed in a special category, and we cannot discharge him from the army until every care has been taken to rebuild him physically, morally, and professionally. Then, having given him his limbs and his re-education gratuitously, we also give him gratuitously whatever implements or machinery may be necessary for him to practice his new trade. Not until then do we put him on his new road of life.

The organization for the different stages of this treatment is interesting. In Italy each army corps has its special province or district. And each of those geographical sections has a complete organization for the care of the disabled. There is the surgical hospital, the orthopedic institute, and the school for retraining the soldier in whatever trade he may be capable of following.

When the amputation wound is sufficiently healed in the surgical hospital, we give the soldier a month's leave, fitting him with a temporary limb for use during that time. When the month is out--that is, before he has had time to get into lazy habits at home or suffer from the effects of misdirected sympathy--he must enter the school for the re-education disabled. To this school is also attached the orthopedic institution. Here he has his definite set of limbs fitted. A plaster cast is taken and each limb is made with particular individual care; and during the first weeks of its use the soldier is under the constant supervision of the doctors, so that they can alter the artificial limbs according as any defects become manifest.

I may also say, for it is an important point, that the limbs made for the common soldier are the same as those made for the Colonel, and the one gets them gratis just as the other does. Not only that, but we have a National Institute whose duty is to take care of these limbs, renew them and alter them free of cost, as long as the soldier lives.

What are the limbs like? Well, for instance, even where a man has lost both hands, we have fitted artificial ones which enable him to write with pen or pencil, to use knife and fork, to button his clothes, and to shave with a safety razor. Thus we get rid of the constant depression from which a soldier would otherwise suffer were he to feel dependent upon some friend for every hand's turn in his daily life.

One of the great sources of success in applying these limbs is the special Italian system, the theory of which was laid down by Vanghetti, of making the amputation so that the muscles from the living part of the arm can be attached in such a way to the artificial limb as to get an organic muscular connection. Thus the natural muscles of the living arm actually can be got to work the artificial fingers or leg, as the case may be. I have made several of these connections full success. And the system is now becoming almost the rule all over the country. It is a special Italian invention, though some of the German professors want to claim the credit for it.

The most important feature, however, of our Italian system is the insistence on retraining. If the soldier's disablement does not allow him to follow his ordinary calling in life, and if he be not of independent means, he is absolutely bound to spend at least a month or six weeks in the training school. There he is asked to choose a trade or calling in keeping with his physical ability. We keep him for at least about six weeks, and show him the whole system in working order. Of course, if he cannot be persuaded, we must allow him to go home, for, after all, we are a free country. But when he remains he is put through a thorough course of training.

During these first weeks in the school the new limbs are fitted, for the school works in connection with the orthopedic institute. In the school we teach the illiterate peasants to read and write. We teach all sorts of designing and drawing, all commercial subjects, all the artisan trades, and also technical farming. Generally we give preference to these trades that can be practiced at home; and we do not encourage largely such trades as would call for work in large factories. In the case of farmers or farm laborers, who are too seriously injured to undertake the heavy work in the fields, we teach them the finer technique of vine culture, wine making, cheese making, &c.

And it generally happens that these disabled men return to life better fitted for their work than they were before the war.

Sneezing Powder in Gas Attacks

A report from a correspondent on the Picardy front, dated May 6, 1918, described how the Germans launched a heavy gas attack against the Americans, sending over within a short period 15,000 shells, containing chiefly mustard gas. This attack was notable for a new German device, which is described as follows:

The Germans introduced gas warfare, forcing modern soldiers to
wear gas masks. Now after the use of masks has proved an effective
weapon against gas they are using a new weapon to force the allied
soldiers to take off masks that they may be easily killed by
lethal phosgine and diphosgine gases.

The weapon is nothing more or less than sneezing powder fired
in high explosive shells. This powder percolates through mask
respirators and brings on sneezing spells which lead the men to
take off their masks and to receive the full effect of lethal
gases. It has been used against the Americans. The method in use
is to fire a number of sneezing powder shells just before a gas
attack or to scatter them along among lethal gas shells.

The German now uses his gases in four methods: First, clouds,
which depend on a favorable wind; second, projectors, also
depending on the wind; third, long-range artillery gas shells,
and, fourth, hand grenades. Deadly gases, such as phosgine and
diphosgine, are used in short-range guns, while neutralization
gas, intended only to prevent activities of allied soldiers far
back of the lines, is used at long range. Mustard gas is much used
in this way. The latest perfection in the use of lethal gases is
to fire twelve or more mortars shooting large-calibre shells at
the same time by an electrical arrangement, thus producing great
concentration.

Russia Under Many Masters

A Month's Events Amid the Chaos Produced by Bolshevist Misrule and
German Invasion

The State Department at Washington on May 16, 1918, published the text of a protest to Germany made by the Russian Government on April 26. The document opened with the following statement: "The Russian Government has taken every measure possible strictly to fulfill the Brest- Litovsk treaty from the Russian side, and in this way to secure for our people the chief aim of this treaty--a state of peace. But in reality no such state of peace exists." The message then enumerated the grievances of the Russians. It pointed out that by advancing upon Kursk and Voronezh the German and Ukrainian troops infringed the Russo-Ukrainian frontier line, "which was one-sidedly established by the Ukrainian Rada itself, and officially made known to us by the German Government." At the same time, the protest said, Russian military property in Finland was being seized by the White Guards, operating in agreement with German detachments and under instruction from the German staff.

The document also called attention to the fact that, although the Soviet authorities had declared their readiness to open peace negotiations with the Ukrainian Central Rada, neither the Ukrainian Government, "which is now directed by Germany," nor the Berlin Government itself, had given any answer to the Russian offer. "Owing to such circumstances," the message declared, "the Soviet Government considers itself compelled to mobilize all necessary forces in order to secure the freedom and independence of the Russian Republic, which is now menaced beyond the limits established by the Brest-Litovsk treaty." The document concluded by reiterating the complete readiness of the Russian people to fulfill the conditions of the Brest-Litovsk pact, and by demanding the German Government should formulate the new demands, "in the name of which it directs Ukrainian, Finnish, and German troops against the Russian Soviet Government."

GERMAN PROMISES

In response to this protest, Berlin, on May 13, advised the Soviet Government through the Russian Ambassador in Berlin, that Germany would stop the invasion of Russian territory, and that it would observe the Brest-Litovsk treaty and restore the rights of Russians residing in Germany. In spite of this assurance, however, the advance of the German Army in Great Russia did not cease. According to a Moscow dispatch, dated May 25, the Germans occupied the district town of Valuyki, in the Government of Voronezh, which is Great Russian territory, and made further advances. The occupation was preceded by a battle which lasted four days. The Teutons also continued their operations in the Don region, where a battle occurred near Bataisk, and in the Caucasus. They mined the Strait of Kerch, or Yenikal, known to the ancients as the Cymmerian Bosporus, which is the only passage from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov. German airships appeared over Novorossysk, on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, and their submarines entered its port. This was done apparently to intimidate the Transcaucasian Government, which refused to cede Novorossysk to Turkey. About the same time Bolshevist detachments crossed the Caspian, attacked the Turks and recaptured the port of Baku. Another battle was won by the Russians over the Turco-German troops in the Kars district of Transcaucasia on May 24. The enemy retreated along the Ardahan road, massacring the population as they went.

Early in June the Germans made a further advance in the south, namely, in the Roslav region and in the district of Rylsk, Government of Kursk. They advanced from the Rostov Railway toward Voronezh and captured Roventki. They also made an attempt to cut the Tsaratsyk Railway near the Kumyigar River. On June 10 the Germans started a new movement eastward along a front sixty miles wide, between Valyiki, captured previously, and Zhukovo.

BLACK SEA FLEET

A large part of the Russian Black Sea fleet fell into the hands of the Germans when they captured Sebastopol, but two large ships and two destroyers escaped. A telegram to the Berliner Tageblatt, dated May 12, said that the majority of the captured vessels had been so neglected that only two battleships were in good condition. One dreadnought and four cruisers had previously been captured at Odessa. On June 6, the Moscow Government offered to surrender the Black Sea fleet to Germany on the following conditions: 1. The ships to be restored after the war is over. 2. Germany to refrain from using the vessels. 3. Invasion of Russia to stop.

According to a memorandum sent on May 21 by Foreign Minister Tchitcherin to the Bolshevist Ambassador Joffe in Berlin, Russian merchantmen and even a hospital ship were attacked by the Germans in the Black Sea, and the menace of German attack constituted a serious obstacle to navigation in the Baltic and Arctic.

On June 6, Germany delivered an ultimatum to the Soviet Government, demanding the return of the remainder of the Russian Black Sea Fleet from Novorossysk to Sebastopol, as a condition for the cessation of hostilities on the part of the Central Powers. The Commissary for Foreign Affairs expressed himself in favor of acceding to the demand, and Lenine ordered the surrender of the ships.

The Soviet Government had no illusions as to the stability of the Brest-Litovsk peace, but in its opinion the time for a new clash with the Central Powers was not yet ripe. Consequently, in the of German aggression, it pursued a policy of preserving this "bad peace" by all manner of concessions and compromises.

The tasks which the Soviet Government were facing were outlined by Nikolai Lenine in several speeches made before the Central Executive Committee of the Councils, in the middle of May. His words were to the effect that war was threatening the Soviet Republic from many quarters. Either of the belligerent groups of imperialistic powers might, in his opinion, at any moment attack Russia. The ambitions of Skoropadsky and of the new Caucasian Government, which was under the influence of German militarism, was regarded as another source of danger. "We shall do the little we can," said Lenine, "all that diplomacy can do to put off the moment of attack. * * * We shall not defend the secret agreements which we have published to the world; we shall not defend a 'Great Power,' for there is nothing of Russia left but Great Russia, and no national interests, because for us the interests of the world's socialism stand higher than national interests. We stand for the defense of the socialistic fatherland."

Lenine professed belief that this defense was facilitated by the profound schism which divided the capitalistic Governments, by the fact that "the German bandits" were pitted against "the English bandits," and that there were economic rivalries between the American bourgeoisie and the Japanese bourgeoisie. "The situation is," said Lenine, "that the stormy waves of imperialistic reaction, which seem ready any moment to drown the little island of the Soviet Socialist Republic, are broken one against another." It was his intention to take full advantage of this situation, and to keep Russia out of the war for as long a time as possible, with a view to curing her economic wounds and building up her military power for the coming clash with world capitalism. Economic recuperation, in the largest sense of the word, was thus declared to be the immediate problem of the revolution. The expropriation of capital became a matter of secondary importance in comparison with the task of consolidating the gains of the proletariat and putting them to good use. "We have accomplished two tasks," said Lenine in concluding his speech before the Central Executive Committee on May 16. "We have seized the power, and we have divided it among all Russia. We point to the realization of the third and most difficult task, namely, the disciplining of the proletariat to such a degree that every corner of Russia shall be permeated thereby."

NO PEACE WITH UKRAINE

The Bolshevist Government made efforts to come to terms with the Ukraine, and also with Finland. In the middle of May a Russian peace delegation arrived in Kiev. Germany appointed Baron Mumm von Schwarzenstein, Ambassador to the Ukraine, as its representative to the peace conferences, with almost dictatorial powers, especially in questions relating to boundaries. The efforts of the Soviet Government to make peace with the Ukraine remained ineffectual. The delegates were unable to agree regarding the frontier line. Repatriation of Ukrainians living in Great Russia was another stumbling block. The removal of property by repatriated Ukrainians, it was objected, would conflict with the Soviet regulation allowing only small sums of money to be exported from Russia. Besides, said the Bolsheviki, this would give propertied Russians a simple means of escape from the Soviet Republic.

According to a London dispatch, dated June 7, Germany was responsible for the delay in the negotiations. The German command at Kiev was reported to have declared Russo-Ukrainian peace inopportune before all important points in the Ukraine were occupied.