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Show PRISONERS ILL-TREATED ,3 IS 3 JAPANESE FIRST VICTIMS I will sit in front of your palace in the street until I receive an ans-srer. I 1 J-'..'.'--.' 1 4 British Civilians Shut Up in a Race Track as a Teutonic Reprisal; War Captives Subjected to Cruelties. ' By JAMES VV. GERARD, American Ambassador to the German Imperial Court, July 2S, 191,1, to February Feb-ruary 4, 1917. Copyright, 1917, by the Public Ledger Company. DURING the period of the first months of the war, in addition to my regular work, it became necessary to look -after those subjects of other nations who had been confided to my care. . At first considerable liberty was allowed al-lowed the British, although none were permitted to leave the country. They were required "to report to -the police at stated times during the Jay, and could not remain out late at night. The Japanese had received warning from their embassy as to the turn that events might take, and-, before sending its ultimatum, the Japanese government govern-ment had warned its citizens, so that a great number of them had left Germany. Ger-many. After the declaration of war by Japan, all the Japanese in Germany were immediately imprisoned. This was stated to be in order to save them from the fury of the population. Japanese First Victims. - Certainly, the population seemed to be greatly incensed against the Japanese. Japa-nese. When I finally obtained permission permis-sion for their release and departure from Germany I had to send some one with the parties of Japanese to the Swiss frontier in order to protect them from injury. They were permitted to leave only through Switzerland, and, therefore, had to change cars at Munich. Mu-nich. Before sending any of them to Munich I invariably telegraphed our consul there to notify the Munich police po-lice so. that proper protection could be provided at the railway station. On on occasion a number of Japanese were waiting in the embassy in order to take tho night train for Munich. I sent a servant to take them out, in order that they might get something to eat in a restaurant, but, as no restaurant restau-rant in Berlin would sell them food, arrangements ar-rangements were made to give tbem meals in the embassy. The members of the Siamese legation, who, in appearance, greatly resemble the Japanese, were often subjected to indignities, and for a long time did not dare move about freely -in Berlin, or even leave their houses. The Japanese were marvels of courtesy. cour-tesy. After I visited some of them at the civilian camp of Euhleben, they wrote me a letter thanking me for the visit. Nearly every Japanese leaving Germany on his arrival in Switzerland wrote me a grateful letter. When I finally left Germany, as I stepped from the special train at Zurich, a Japanese woman, who had been imprisoned im-prisoned in Germany, and whose hus- (Continued on Page Eleven.) "My Four Years in Germany" ! (Continued from Page One.) i baud I had visited in a prison, came forward to thank me. A Japanese man was waiting in the hot ("office in Berne when I arrived there for a similar purpose, pur-pose, and early the next morning the Japanese minister called and left a beautiful clock for Mrs. Gerard as an expression of his gratitude for the attention at-tention shown to his countrymen. It was really a pleasure to' be able to do something for these polite and charming people. First Visit to a Camp. On August 20 I paid my first visit to a Cjerman prison camp. This was to the camp at Doebcritz, situated about eight miles west of Berlin, a sort of military camp with permanent barracks. Some of these barracks were used for the confinement of such British Brit-ish civilians as the Germans had arrested ar-rested in the first days of the war. Only a few British were among the prisoners there, together with a number num-ber of Russian and French. I was allowed al-lowed to converse freely with the prisoner pris-oner and found that they had no complaints. As the war went on, howevor, a number num-ber of British, .prisoners of war were made by the Germans during the course of the great retreat of the British in northern France. Then officers and privates began to come into Germany, and were distributed in various camps. Finally, in the autumn of 1914, the British government decided on interning a great number of Germans in England, and the German government immediately, immedi-ately, and as- a reprisal, interned "all the British civilian men who, up to this time, had enjoyed comparative freedom in Berlin and other cities of the empire. em-pire. The British civilians were shut up in a race track about five miles from the center of Berlin, called Kuhleben. This race track in peace times was used for contests of trotting horses, and on it were the usual grand stands and brick stable buildings containing box stalls with hay lofts above, where the race horses were kept. On August 20 I paid myfirst visit to the police presidency in Berlin, where political prisoners, when arrested, were confined. A small number of English prisoners subject to special investigation investiga-tion were there interned. This prison, which I often subsequently visited, was clean and well kept, and I never had any particular complaints from the prisoners pris-oners confined there exeppt, of course, as the war progressed, concerning the inadequacy of the food. Special Care for Prisoners. I had organized a special department immediately on the breaking out of the war to care for the interests of the English. At first Boylston Beal, a lawyer law-yer of Boston, assisted by Bivington Pync of New York was at the head of this department of which later the Hon. John B. Jackson, formerly our minister minis-ter to the Balkan states, Greece and Cuba, took charge. He volunteered to give his assistance at the commencement commence-ment of the war, and I was glad of his help, especially as he had been twelve years secretary in the Berlin embassy; therefore, he was well acquainted, not only with Germany, but with German official of-ficial life and customs. Mr. Jackson Jack-son was most ably assisted by Charles IT. Russell, Jr., of Now York, and Lith-gow Lith-gow Osborn. Of course, others in the embassy had much to do with this department. de-partment. The first private?, prisoners of war, cams to the camp 0f Doeberil z near Berlin. Early in the war Mr. Grew, our firt secretary, and Consul General Lay visited the camp for officers at Torgau. The question of the inspection of prisoners prison-ers of tho cumps and the rights of am-lassadors am-lassadors charged with the interests of hostile powers was quite in the clouds. So many reports came to Germany about the bad treatment in England nf Gorman prisoners of war that I finally arranged to have Mr. Jackson visit En-ghml En-ghml and report. This was arranged by my colleague, our ambassador to England, and in tho first winter Mr. Jackpon made his trip to England. His report of conditions there did mueh to allay the German belief be-lief as to the ill-treatment of their sub-! sub-! ieet who were prisoners in England, j and helped me greaily in bringing about I better conditions in Germany. After vainly en inavoring to get the German j government to agree to some def i n i t e j plan for the inspection of the prismas; ; ;i f tor my u r,t es to the f oreipn office ; had remained unanswered for a long pc-j pc-j :iod of time, and after sending a per- son a! letter to Yon Jagnw, calling his' J nticritinn to the fnt that the delay va? injur:ng German prisoners in o:her I enuKiyir?, I fir.p.llv railed on lianeelior j von Bo hn.a nn-ii .!! vpg and t Md him that my note? concr rnir.g i-ripon's w-r" ?er,t by 'he f "-rei gn of; i-e to the m i !i tary ainho: itics, and that, while I rrv.! ;:!::: with rff M the foreign n;rV-p. i.over in no into co:ita w'h 'he pr-o sent by me and wdio made the decisions j as to the treatment of prisoners of , war and inspection of their camps. I begged the chancellor to break down diplomatic precedent and allow mo to speak with the military authorities who I decided those questions. And I said, "If I cannot get an answer to my proposition about prisoners, I will take a chair and sit in front of your palace in the street until I receive an answer. an-swer. ' The result was a meeting in my of- i fice. Agreement in Twenty Minutes.1 I discussed the question involved with two representatives from the foreign office, two from the general staff, two from the war department, and Count Schwerin, who commanded the civilian civil-ian camp at the Ruhleben race track. In twenty minutes we managed to reach ! an agreement, which I then and there drew np; the substance of which was, that as between England and Germany, ! tho American ambassador and' his representatives repre-sentatives in Germany and the American Ameri-can ambassador and his representatives in England should have the right to visit the prison camps on giving reasonable rea-sonable notice, which was to be twenty-four twenty-four hours where possible, and should have the right to converse with the prisoners within sight, but out of hearing hear-ing of the camp officials. An endeavor should be made to adjust matters complained com-plained of with the camp authorities before bringing them to the notice of higher authorities. Ten representatives should be named by our ambassador, and these should receive passes enabling en-abling them to visit tho camps under the conditions above stated. This agreement was ratified by the British and German governments, and thereafter for a long time wo worked under its provisions, and in most questions ques-tions dealt direct with tho war department. depart-ment. Of course, before this meeting I had managed to get permission to visit the camps of Ruhleben and Doebcritz near Berlin. Mr. MichaelsQn, our consul at Cologne, and Mr. Jackson and others at the embassy had been permitted to visit certain camps. But immediately preceding the meeting meet-ing on the fourth of March, and while matters were still being discussed, we , were compelled to a certain extent to i suspend our visits. Tn the first days of tho war it was undoubtedly and unfortunately true that prisoners of war taken by the Germans, Ger-mans, both at the time of their capture and in transit to the prison camps, wore often badly treated by ho soldiers, sol-diers, guards, or the civil population. The instances were too numerous; the : evidence too overwhelm i ng. in t ho prison ramps themselves, owing to the peculiar system of military government in Germany, the treatment of the prisoners pris-oners varied greatly. As I have staled, I think, in another place, German v is divided into army corps districts. Over each of these districts:, in time of war, is a representative corps com man dor who is clothed with absolute ower in that district, his orders super soiling thofco of all civilian officials. Thse corps commanders do not report to the war department, but are in a me;:-ure independent and very jealous of their rights. Jealous Military. Eur iustai:c(-, to show the difficulty t f den li n g with these corps co:n ma ndern, after my a rra n gen j en ts concerning tin' inspection ot prisoners of war had r-ratified r-ratified by both the imperial and British Brit-ish government s, I went to T la lie to; inspect the place of d'-t'-n'inn for officers offi-cers tiK'r Halle is so:r e ho,i r? from Berlin, and when I had driven o' t to he fflmp was mrd by the co.n n: a :i-dr, :i-dr, who tfdd me that. T might vi?it ' Tho camp, but that I could not pe,-,;; -0 the prisoners out of hearing. J tohl him h at our a rra n go men t was ot h'Twi-e. but, as he remained firm, I rturn'-d to Feriin. I compaind to the foreign office, and was told there that the n:atW r-o-d 't,f arrai.grd and so 1 again. nir. j i n ''f on the- peennd 1 rip wic ry.-a'-tly the Kinio n the f'ir-'t. I spohe tn Von Jngo-.v, who oxplain'-d the d!i;Mion o me. and advised me to visit first Hie ''rps com an de r at M a gdel u; rg and t ry ::nd arrange the matter v.d'h him.. J did - o, and v.'is f i : a :ly perm j ' ' '-A fo vi-,i i this c;i-n p a r d to tail; to 1 1jp '7 i'-ert out. nf ;,d. r; Thi- of Ma!b- vn "'-. rhi-o f(,r Ihf (let''iili"n of officers, who .viTc hrir-d in tli o oM f: ry bui M-i M-i n y-: f-n rra:) n fieri hy n pnrt nf con rt-yar'l rt-yar'l rovem'! v.'ith cinders. This building build-ing v.-;i. pit n;i U- in tho indnstriril part 'if t lie town of J lal'e. Tliero wns no of .po: t unit y for ref-rention or primes, nl-thnnh nl-thnnh '.''erril enterprising offieers had ' rlcd to ;i vru u ;;e a pn-c here they coul knock a t'-unia bail iinmsttbo |
