INTERNATIONAL LAW AND THE

WORLD WAR

CHAPTER XXI

TREATMENT OF PRISONERS

§ 331. Magnitude of the Problem of Caring for Prisoners during the Recent War; 332. Prisoners of War Information Bureaus; § 333. Inspection of Prison Camps by Neutral Representatives; § 334. Character and Methods of Inspection; $335. Pay of Officers Held as Prisoners; § 336. Officers' Quarters; § 337. Quarters and Housing Arrangements for Men; § 338. The Ruheleben Camp; § 339. The Camp at Wittenberg; § 340. Gardelegen and Other “Bad” Camps; § 341. Mixing of Prisoners of Different Nationalities; § 342. Regulations and Practice as to Clothing.

8331. The Magnitude of the Problem of Caring for Prisoners during the Recent War. The task of caring for the large number of prisoners taken by some of the belligerents during the late war, especially by Germany, exceeded in difficulty and magnitude that of any previous war. The task was further

1 According to an official statement issued by the German government on August 1, 1916, Germany and her allies had captured 2,678,000 prisoners as against 1,695,000 captured by their enemies. Of the former, 1,646,223 were in German prisons. They were distributed by nationalities as follows:

These figures were increased somewhat, though not considerably, by subsequent captures. According to a statement issued in May, 1917, the Central powers then held nearly 3,000,000, of whom 1,690,730 were in German prisons. In January, 1918, General Friedrich, in charge of prison affairs in Germany, stated to the main committee of the Reichstag that 410,000 French captives were then being held in German prisons (New York Times, March 11, 1918). Next to Germany, Russia took the largest number of prisoners. In October, 1916, the United States consulgeneral at Moscow reported that at least 1,000,000 prisoners were being held in

VOL. II-I

complicated by the internment by most of the belligerents of practically the entire enemy alien population. Manifestly the problem of housing and of adequately feeding, clothing, and guarding so large a number of prisoners for whom no provision had been made in advance, and this at a time when the energies and resources of the nations were being directed toward the destruction of the enemy, was a herculean task. The difficulty was further enhanced, in the case of Germany, by the suddenness with which the problem was thrust upon her, for the greater number of German captives were taken during the early months of the war, and provision for taking care of them was necessarily hasty and inadequate.

§ 332. Prisoners of War Information Bureaus. As is well known, the Hague convention of 1899 respecting the laws and customs of war on land made it the duty of belligerents to establish at the outbreak of hostilities a bureau of information charged with answering inquiries about prisoners of war in respect to internments, transfers, releases on parole, exchanges, escapes, admissions to hospitals, deaths, etc.; to collect and preserve all objects of personal use, valuables, letters, etc., found on the battle field or left by prisoners released on parole or exchanged or who had died, and to forward them to the persons interested, etc. The convention of 1907 extended the scope of the bureau to include the furnishing of specific information regarding the regimental number, name, age, place of origin, rank, unit, nature of wounds, date and place of capture, internment, or death, and other information. Shortly after the outbreak of the war the British government took steps toward the putting into effect of the terms of the convention. On August 25, 1914, Sir Edward Grey in a communication to the American ambassador in London announced that His Majesty's government had instituted a prisoners of war information bureau to carry out the obligations which devolved upon them under article 14 of the convention, and he stated that he would be grateful if the ambassador would ascertain

Russia. New York Times, October 15, 1916. According to an announcement made in the House of Commons on October 28, 1918, British troops had taken since the beginning of the war 327,416 prisoners of whom 264,242 were Germans; of the latter, 97,000 were at the time in prisons in England.

1 Art. 14.

INFORMATION BUREAUS

3

whether the German and Austro-Hungarian governments were taking steps on their part to carry out the provisions of the article.1 His Majesty's government, he said, was prepared to communicate periodically to the German and Austro-Hungarian governments lists of prisoners interned in England on the understanding that those governments would send corresponding lists of British prisoners interned in Germany and AustriaHungary, and that it was likewise prepared, on condition of reciprocity, to forward letters despatched by prisoners in accordance with article 16 of the said convention.2 In a subsequent communication to Mr. Page, Sir Edward Grey stated that the British prisoners of war information bureau made no distinction between military prisoners of war and civilians interned in the United Kingdom and other parts of the Empire, and that it furnished regular lists of both categories of prisoners.3 It seems clear that the provisions of the Hague convention in respect to the prisoners of war information bureau were not intended to apply to interned civilians and in charging its bureau with furnishing the enemy governments with information regarding their civilian subjects interned in Great Britain, the British government undoubtedly went further than the Hague convention required.

On August 26 the French government published in the Journal Officiel an avis announcing that a prisoners of war information bureau had been established in France in conformity with article 14, and that it would furnish the information required by the

1 The organization and activities of the British bureau are fully described by Mr. R. F. Roxburgh in a monograph entitled, The Prisoners of War Information Bureau in London (London, 1915).

2 Correspondence between His Majesty's Government and the United States Ambassador respecting the Treatment of Prisoners of War and Interned Civilians in the United Kingdom and Germany respectively, Misc., No. 7 (1915), Cd. 7817,

p. I.

3 Ibid., p. 53. In a note verbale of January 7, 1915, addressed by the German foreign office to the American ambassador, the German government stated that the central committee of the Red Cross society at Berlin had undertaken to furnish information regarding British civil prisoners interned in Germany on condition that a similar institution should be established in England to furnish information regarding German civilians interned in that country, and on condition that the British government would assist it and furnish it with lists of such prisoners and such other information as might be desired. Ibid., p. 50.

Cf. the discussions at the Conference of 1907, Actes et Docs., Vol. III, pp. 9, 10, 109, 114-118.

Hague convention and perform the other obligations imposed by it. The Russian ordinance of October 7/20, 1914, concerning prisoners of war 2 provided for the establishment at Petrograd of a central bureau of information under the direction of the Russian Red Cross society to give information concerning prisoners of war. The Austro-Hungarian ordinance of February, 1915, concerning the treatment of prisoners provided for a Gemeinsames Zentral Nachweisebureau at Vienna for furnishing information regarding prisoners.3

On September 14 the Ameican ambassador at London received a telegram from the American ambassador at Berlin announcing that the German government had established an inquiry office at Berlin in conformity with article 14 and would collect and forward periodically the information and the objects required by the convention. There was some complaint at first on the part of the British government that the information furnished by the German bureau regarding the condition of English prisoners in Germany was insufficient, but the German government replied that it was doing all in its power to comply with the terms of the convention, and that every effort would be made in the future to furnish the information demanded." The British government further complained because the German bureau declined to answer inquiries addressed to it directly by private persons, although the British bureau was endeavoring to do it and would continue to do so. The German government replied that its bureau could not undertake to answer any but official inquiries, but it added that the task of answering private inquiries had been assumed by the central committee of the Red Cross society, which had an official character. This

1 Text in Législation de la Guerre de 1914, Vol. I, p. 85. Cf. also the text of a letter of M. Delcassé of February 28, 1915, in response to a question regarding the treatment of French prisoners in Germany (Jour. Off., February 28, 1915; also Rev. Gen. de Droit Int. Pub. (1915), Docs., p. 121).

Cf. also Régime des Prisonniers, p. 45, a publication issued by the French government, and Lemoine, Les Conventions Internationales sur le Régime des Prisonniers de Guerre, pp. 45, 51.

2 Text in 22 Rev. Gen. de Droit Int. Pub. (1915), Docs., p. 145.

Art. 14 of the convention does not in express terms require the information bureau to answer such inquiries, although Sir Edward Grey so interpreted it, basing his contention on the language of the convention which charges the bureau "to reply to all inquiries about prisoners."

• Ibid., p. 18.