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Show WAR PRISONERS PLACED IN DESOLATE MORAL POSITION Distinguished Economist Describes' Some of the Results of Destructive Warfare in Europe. In this and his preceding letter , Max Nordau describes the treatment of those interned In war countries. As the world-famous scientist has just been released by the French government gov-ernment after eighteen months' Internment In-ternment because of his Teutonic birth, he writes from personal experience. experi-ence. Dr. Nordau has received high honors in France for his contributions to science. By MAX NORDAU. FAR more desolate than the material condition of the interned prisoners of war of all European belligerents Is their moral position. The wardens and surveyors under whose authority they are placed are considering consider-ing them determinated as criminals. They are subjected to jail discipline. They are forced to obey their guards. Every trespass of the degrading prison rules exposes them to pitiless punishment. Only once or twice a month may they write or receive letters, which are read and stopped according to his pleasure by the camp commander. Except the few who live at their own expense, all others are astrained to compulsory work. Forced to Labor. Persons of highest culture, lawyers, physicians, scholars, artists, men of letters, let-ters, clergymen, have to accomplish coolie labor. They are not asked whether they want ft. It is seldom inquired into whether they are able to do it. It is not left to their choice which kind of occupation occu-pation they prefer. And in this manner these unfortunates live for two years, more rightless and honorless than criminals crim-inals sentenced for a proved misdeed to the same term of penal servitude by a regular court of justice, after trial and defense. In the meanwnlle, all property they possess -in the enemy country has been put under sequester. They dispose of not a single cent of it. What a native owes them is not paid them. What they owe. really or pretendedly, is paid lavishly lavish-ly out of their assets. If the ready money Is not sufficient for it. their furniture or merchandises are sold by auction at derisory de-risory prices. They have perhaps been millionaires yesterday. They are at present robbed of everything and call nothing their own save what tliey carry on their body. This was the treatment suffered, among others, by a Hungarian cabinet minister, by Russian generals and chamberlains who had been caught In summer resorts by the outbreak of the war. Cruelty Practiced. And more grewsome still than the lot of the robbed, ill-treated, humiliated, hard-labor hard-labor stricken enemy aliens Is that of the native population of districts occupied by the enemy. The Russians during their raid in Galicla, the Germans In Belgium and the French departments trodden under their heels employ the method of tearing hostages, or all the inhabitants, away from their homes and lands and dragging them Into exile. All the atrocities atroci-ties suffered by the aliens have been Inflicted In-flicted on them. They had to leave behind all their belongings, and could carry with them nothing of their property. They had to travel over hundreds of miles. In slow trains or even on foot, under the cudgel or the bayonet of surveying soldiers, sol-diers, to be finally squeezed Into some camp of misery and horror. They had to endure all the cruelties of prison discipline and enforced labor. And what was the most wicked Inhumanity, for months, for a year and more, they were deprived oi every possibility of communicating with their families at home. No letter reached them, no letter of theirs was forwarded-Only forwarded-Only in the last four or five months could . the concession be wrenched from the ! authorities that they permitted the ex- : change of news between these unforiu- j nates and their relatives. But under what conditions! Only post cards are allowed, al-lowed, only in long intervals, only with a counted number of words, at most twenty at a time. . Precedent Is Remote. Against the enemy aliens It could be1 alleced that they found themselves In a foreign country and had to pay the penalty pen-alty of their faith in treaties. International Interna-tional law and civilization, which had induced in-duced them to risk themselves beyond the boundaries of their mother country; besides, be-sides, they might have been suspected of espionage. But what could be reproached to peacable peasants and city dwellers who lived on their own soil and were seized by an Invading enemy on their own hearthsldes? And especially: How can Russia justify her treating her own subjects sub-jects like war prisoners and chasing them from their homes into the interior of the empire, into destitution, famine, sickness and death? Mongols, Huns, vandals slew the populations that could not fly before them, but they did not drag them Into slavery. We must ro back twenty-five centuries, to the Assyrians, to Sanherib and Nebuchadnezzar to find the precedent prece-dent of an invading host carrying Into bondage whole populations. Men Are Degraded. At the epoch when the Mediterranean was infested with Barbary pirates, there existed and worked in the whole Christendom Chris-tendom pious institutions for the redeeming redeem-ing of Christian slaves. We lived to see that In our davs the obsolete usage had to be revived. The United States, Switzerland, Switzer-land, the King of Spain have nobly exerted ex-erted themselves to assuage the lot of the unhappy war prisoners, to liberate many of them by means of exenange, as it was the custom In bygone days with the Christian captives in north Africa. Even the dire adventure of Cervantes, who for years languished in Algiers as a slave till the money for his redemption could be paid to his owner, repeats itself at present pres-ent up to a certain point. In the concentration concen-tration camps there are actually, if not geniuses of the rank of the author of "Don Quixote." at least writers and artists of talent who have lost their Individuality, Indi-viduality, who have become mere numbers, num-bers, and are employed as scavengers and drainers of bogs and marshes. Cries to Heaven. All this cries to heaven. Not alone because be-cause of its inhumanity, but also and principally because of its utter useless-ness. useless-ness. What advantage does It yield to imprison foreigners instead of permitting them to leave the country? Does It add in the least to the chances of victory to drag away and to enslave unarmed populations? popu-lations? Does It hasten peace by one hour to forbid these pitiable serfs to receive re-ceive Information from their family or to permit them the writing of only twenty words a month? This Is Sadism. This is wickedness for its own sake. Here, if ever, Talleyrand's word finds its application: "This Is worse than a crime. It is a fault." |