on May 13, 1915, the Prime Minister announced that the government had decided upon a measure of general internment. He said:

At this moment some 40,000 unnaturalized aliens, of whom 24,000 are men, are at large in this country. The government proposes that all adult males of this class should, for their own safety and that of the country, be segregated and interned. If over the military age, they should be repatriated. The government recognizes that there may be cases calling for exceptional treatment. Women and children in suitable cases should be repatriated, but there no doubt will be many cases in which justice and humanity will require that they be allowed to remain.

An official body, judicial in character, will be set up to deal with claims for exemption, and as soon as the military and naval authorities have provided the necessary accommodations, those who have not secured exemption will be interned. In the case of naturalized aliens, who in law are British subjects, numbering about 8000, the prima facie presumption should be the other way, but exceptional cases established to the satisfaction of the advising body will be specially dealt with. There must be powers of internment in cases of proved necessity or danger.

It will be seen from the Prime Minister's announcement that naturalized British subjects of enemy origin were also to be subjected, in exceptional cases, to internment. In accordance with this announcement, an Order in Council was issued in June empowering the Home Secretary to intern any person, when, in view of his "hostile origin or association, it seemed expedient to do so for the public safety." Under this order British subjects of hostile origin or association could be arrested and interned in detention camps without due process of law and without the benefit of the writ of habeas corpus, and many were in fact so arrested and imprisoned. There was some protest against the validity of the order,29 but it was sustained by a decision of the Court of Appeal in Zadig's Case.30

In accordance with the announcement of the Prime Minister on May 13, practically the entire enemy population, as well as the majority of naturalized British subjects of enemy origin, including also several

29 See the criticism in the London Solicitors Journal and Weekly Reporter, Vol. 60, p. 233, and the London Weekly Times of July 18, 1916.

30 A. C. 260 (1917). Lord Dunfermline dissented in a long opinion. The London Times severely criticized this decision. The decision is also criticized by the Law Quarterly Review of July, 1917, p. 205.

31

thousand friendly aliens, were arrested and sent to concentration camps in various parts of England and in the Isle of Man. It was stated in the House of Commons on December 14, 1915, that the number of enemy aliens then interned amounted to 45,749. Of these, 32,274 were civilians and 13,475 were described as "naval and military men.3 Complaint was made in Parliament as late as February, 1917, however, that 4294 enemy aliens, including 287 men of military age, were still uninterned and that Germans were still carrying on business in London.32 Exemptions were granted in exceptional cases, a special internment committee having been appointed to pass upon applications from persons who for one reason or another claimed that they were entitled to be left at liberty. 33 Many persons who were entitled to be repatriated preferred to be interned in concentration camps rather than be sent back to their native country where, in view of their long absence, they would have been virtual strangers and without means of support. Others preferred internment to being left at large in England where they would be exposed to mob outbreaks and maltreatment, against which the local authorities were often powerless to protect them, especially in the case of those who lived in isolated places. So far as possible, work was provided at the camps for those desiring it; tools, materials, and instructors in the handicrafts were furnished, educational

31 Sir Herbert Samuel stated in the House of Commons in July, 1916, that at the outbreak of the war there were about 75,000 Germans and Austro-Hungarians living in England. At the time of his statement, all but 22,000, he said, had either been interned or repatriated. Of these, 10,000 were women, 4000 were friendly aliens, and 1500 were aged people, leaving 6500 to whom exemptions had been granted. London Weekly Times, July 7, 1916. According to a London press dispatch of November, 1916, there were then 32,000 German civilians interned in England, 23,000 of whom were in the Isle of Man camp.

32 London Weekly Times, February 23, 1917.

33 Sir John Simon, speaking near the end of July, 1915, of the work of this committee, stated that it had received 14,117 applications for exemption from internment. These came mostly from Poles, Czechs, Italians and Alsatians. In view of the somewhat lenient treatment accorded to British subjects by the AustroHungarian Government, the committee was disposed to show special consideration to the subjects of that country, and particularly to the above mentioned races, since their sympathies were understood to be more or less on the side of the Entente Allies. Sir John stated that the applications of more than 6000 such persons had been granted, and that most of them had been repatriated. Solicitors Journal and Weekly Reporter, July 31, 1915, p. 672.

classes were organized, libraries established, and the like. According to the reports of representatives of the American Embassy who inspected the camps from time to time, the civilian prisoners were well treated and were probably better off than they would have been had they been left scattered over the country, where they would have been exposed to ill-treatment.

Nevertheless, the German Government protested strongly against the policy of wholesale internment as unprecedented, harsh, and unnecessary. In a dispatch of November 8, 1915, to the American Ambassador in London, Mr. Gerard voiced the protest of the German Government. It admitted, he said, the right of the British Government to arrest German subjects who were suspected of espionage, but that great popular resentment had been aroused by the reports of the arrests of other Germans.34 In a White Book issued by the German Foreign Office in 1915,35 the German Government complained of the rigorous treatment to which its nationals in England, France, and Russia had been subjected in respect to their rights of person and property, particularly the closing of the courts, thereby making it impossible for them to enforce their legal rights, the policy of wholesale internment, the sequestration of German property, the attacks of mobs, etc.36 The Austro-Hungarian Government made similar complaints.37

FRENCH POLICY

The problem which confronted the Government of France at the outbreak of the war was, by reason of the large number of enemy aliens in the national territory and the geographical proximity of the country to Germany, even more serious than that which faced the

34 Correspondence between His Majesty's Government and the United States Ambassador Respecting the Release of Interned Civilians. Misc. No. 8 (1915) [Cd. 7857], p. 19.

35 Entitled, Ausnahmegesetze gegen deutschen Private Recht in England Frankreich und Russland (Carl Heyman's Verlag, Berlin, 1915), especially pp. 193 ff.

36 The German White Book complained especially of harsh and cruel treatment which Germans in the Cameroons are alleged to have received at the hands of the British.

37 See the Red Book entitled, "Collection of Evidence Respecting Violations of the Law of Nations by the Countries at War with Austria-Hungary."

British Government. In addition to the large number of permanent residents of enemy nationality who had lived in the country for many years and were engaged in business or the practice of professions, there were thousands of German and Austrian tourists who were caught there by the suddenness of the outbreak of the war. The condition in which many found themselves was almost pathetic. Without money, without clothing except such as they wore at the time, with the hotels and lodging houses closed to them, with no place to sleep except in the parks and public squares, thousands, exhausted from long journeys and fruitless searches for lodgings, terrified at the prospect of being arrested as spies, betook themselves to the American Embassy to beg for food, advice, and protection.38 The embassy rendered them assistance in many ways. It gave them information regarding local police regulations; it found lodgings for them in school houses and other public buildings, with the permission of the French Government; and provided them with money to meet temporary and urgent needs.

During the first days of the war there was some wrecking of German shops in certain quarters of Paris, especially of milk depots, some windows were broken and crockery dashed to pieces, and account books scattered in the streets, but the outbreaks were not general or serious.39

On August 2, 1914, when the outbreak of war with Germany was imminent, the French Government gave notice that all foreigners might leave France before the end of the first day of mobilization. On the same day a decree was issued commanding all persons of foreign nationality, without distinction as to age, sex, or nationality, to make known their identity to the commissariat of police at the mairie or to an administrator at their place of residence. The same decree required all German and Austro-Hungarian subjects to evacuate the region of the

38 Eric Fisher Wood, The Note Book of an Attaché pp. 2-8. For a French view of the German spy system in France see an article by Georges Prade in the London Weekly Times of May 19, 1916.

39 Wood, op. cit., pp. 6 ff. and 33 ff. There is a deposition in the Austro-Hungarian Red Book, p. 30, which alleges that all German and Austrian shops in Paris were wrecked, but I know from personal knowledge that the statement is entirely without foundation.

northwest, as well as a part of the southwest, including also the fortified districts embracing Paris and Lyons, and to retire to certain places in the west where work, if possible, would be provided for them. Eventually they would either be allowed to leave the country or authorized to continue their residence. In the latter event they would be furnished with a permis de séjour but would not be allowed to change their places of residence without a safe-conduct establishing their identity.40

Natives of Alsace-Lorraine, not naturalized as French citizens but members of families long established in the country, whose origin and sentiments were known, as well as families of which at least one member had enlisted in the Foreign Legion, were allowed to remain with full liberty of action. By a decree of the same date the territories of Belfort and Algeria were declared to be in a state of siege. The measures requiring the evacuation of the regions mentioned were deemed necessary on account of the rapid advance of the German armies and the certainty that those regions would soon become the theater of actual warfare.

By a decree of August 3 the police authorities of the frontier and maritime departments were instructed not to permit any person who was not provided with a passport to leave France, this with a view of preventing French citizens from evading their military duties, and also to prevent the departure of enemy subjects for the purpose of joining the colors of their own country.42 Until that date Germans and Austro-Hungarians were free to leave France without restriction, and in spite of the briefness of the period allowed and the difficulties of transportation due to the use of the railways by the French Govern

40 Permits de séjour to reside at their homes were granted very sparingly, the recipients being for the most part foreigners who had sons in the French army or old men who had lived in France for many years and whose ties with the fatherland had been broken by long absence. The Minister of the Interior stated in the Senate, on March 23, 1916, that not more than 500 permits of the kind had been issued to enemy aliens in Paris and that the number granted in the provinces was very small.

Text of the decree in Dalloz, Guerre de 1914, Vol. I, p. 19; Législation de la Guerre, Vol. I, pp. 13-14; Clunet, 1915, pp. 95-96; and Rev. Gén. de Droit Int. Pub., 1915, pp. 7-8.

42 Valery, De la Condition en France des Ressortissants des Puissances Ennemis, Rev. Gén. de Droit Int. Pub., 1916, p. 356.