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Show Generous Treatment of Axis Prisoners in U. S. Improves Conditions for Captured Americans 8 ' , 1 j i 1 ! if ' ' Vw I j 1 ' " ' , ' ; j - i , f,i j I 'I ' t I ',, ' ' , ' ' ' -, t 5 ' i I . 4 T" - f? S - v - . 'fir . ' , r " " 'rA. . 'i . V v ' fa ' - 1 , " , -, i ! Red Cross Reports Men in Nazi Hands Well Fed and Housed By BARROW LYONS WNU Staff Correspondent In some 30,000 families throughout our land today the folks are thinking of some soldier from home who has fallen into enemy hands now a prisoner of war far away. When our troops make the great push against the mainland main-land of Europe, there will be more boys taken prisoners. In the war prisoner camps within the United States, we hold some 175,000 enemy soldiers captured mostly on the battlefields of Africa, Sicily and Italy. Of these, 125,000 are Germans, 50,000 Italians. Only 116 are Japanese. Many protests have been made to army authorities, because of the good treatment given these prisoners. prison-ers. Lots of people don't understand under-stand why enemy prisoners should be given the same comforts, the same medical attention, the same food as our own soldiers. But there is a reason so compel-, ling, that none can complain when it is understood. It is not for the sake of the prisoners-, but in the interest of our own soldiers held by the enemy. They are the real object of our forbearance and solicitude. And, of course, our national honor is involved, for we agreed to give prisoners the same food and care as our own men under the Prisoners of War convention signed and ratified rati-fied at Geneva on July 27, 1929. Reciprocal Good Treatment. Reliable reports made to the army Indicate that the good treatment we have accorded prisoners has won for our own men in German prison camps conditions that are at least as good as those under which German Ger-man soldiers live. These facts were revealed for the 1 first time to your correspondent by Maj. Gen. Allen W. Gullion, provost marshal general of the army, who has general supervision over prisoners prison-ers of war. The actual guarding of the prisoners is a function of the The ttst German soldier to be taken prisoner in Iceland was Sergeant Ser-geant Maufrak, who bailed out of his Junkers plane after it had been hit by U. S. army fighters. He is shown at intelligence headquarters, enjoying en-joying the rations on the tray before him, despite a bandaged arm and numerous bruises. I i ians who escaped from a branch camp at .El Paso, part of the Lords-I Lords-I burg, N. M., camp, and one German who got away at Crossville, Term. There has been complaint from organized labor lately because we have used some of the war prisoners prison-ers for tasks in lumber camps and on road work, where there was no American labor available. General Gullion gives labor assurance that prisoners of war are not being put to work on any job where civilian labor is available in adequate supply. sup-ply. Prisoner of war labor is a temporary expedient to relieve the existing shortage of man power. The United States agreed at the Geneva convention to return all prisoners of war to their own countries coun-tries at the conclusion of the war, hence the fear of competition with free labor is groundless, the general gen-eral says. tf Prisoners Cut Pulpwood. Prisoners have been in logging operations where American workers have left the woods to work in shipyards ship-yards and machine shops at much higher wages, he explains. They have been useful in cutting and peeling pulp logs needed critically for containers in civilian industry and for newsprint, of which there is a shortage. Prisoners have been used also in maintaining roads in some areas where other manual laborers la-borers are very scarce. The tremendous tre-mendous importance of road maintenance, main-tenance, in view of the heavy traffic, traf-fic, is obvious. Prisoners have been used also in laundries. Nearly everyone today has suffered inconveniences because of the shortage of laundry labor, and can understand this expedient. The story of Japanese prisoners is less happy. When a Japanese soldier is taken prisoner he is washed up he never wishes to return re-turn to Japan for he is disgraced forever in the eyes of his countrymen. country-men. We have in this country scarcely more than a hundred Japanese prisoners, pris-oners, and General MacArthur has only a few hundred more, according accord-ing to General Gullion. They tire given the same food and accommodations as our own soldiers, because we hope by according ac-cording such treatment to ameliorate amelio-rate the lot of our own 18,500 men held by the Japanese. prison camp commander who is under un-der the control of the commanding general of the service command. Censorship reveals that letters from relatives and friends express much gratitude and happiness over the Way we are treating their men. "We are informed by the International Inter-national Red Cross that the Germans Ger-mans say that because of our good treatment of their soldiers, they are giving our men more liberties and better treatment," General Gullion Gul-lion told your correspondent. "The Geneva conventions required that each prisoner be given the same food as soldiers of the capturing power receive in base camps. According Ac-cording to the reports of Swiss observers, ob-servers, the Germans are living up to this provision; our men in some instances are getting even a little better food than the German soldiers, sol-diers, although the German facilities facili-ties do not compare with ours. "I think there can be only one answer to the complaint that we are treating the prisoners we take too well. One gets it when one asks the question: Is it better to yield to a very natural, vengeful Impulse to take it out on our prisoners, or to observe ob-serve our treaty agreements and protect pro-tect our own men?" Few Escape. There have been complaints also that the prisoners we hold have not been sufficiently guarded; that too many have escaped to become a menace to the home population. General Gullion points to the facts. Of the 175,000 prisoners we now hold in this country, about 100 have escaped, es-caped, but all except three have been recaptured and are in custody. The only men at large are two Itnl- I TEIEFACT FEW JAP PRISONERS HAVE BEEN TAKEN BY U. S. JAPANESE 400 fi if ' GERMANS 111,000 itauans 70m |