The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-06
DIRECTOR OF RESCUE WORK IN THE EAST AdOlph VOn BatOcki Does
 Good Work in Prussia CARING FOR REFUGEES Over 300, ,000 People Have Fled Be-
 fore Russians-PrincipalI Industry of East Prussia Has Been Struck Hard Blow
CARING FOR REFUGEES

Koenigsberg, April 25.-(Correspondence of the Associated Press.)-Just as Field Marshall von Hindenburg has become dominating figure throughout all Ger many, so, in the province of East Prus- sia. Adolph von Batocki, the ober-presi- dent, has become the most prominent character because of his indefatigable eff forts in behalf of the hundreds of thou sands of persons made homeless by the inroads of the Russians.
 von Batoch began his work soon as he, was called from private life to his high office last fall, for much had by that | time been destroyed and devastated. With | the more recent raid on Memel, and the l destruction of a majority of the district | of which it is the center, he once more I took to the field.
 l It was at Tilsit, one time prey of the Russians, that an Associated Press cor respondent met him, fresh from the coun- 1 tryside teeming with the wagons of the fugitives. He had just completed an in- vestigaton of the work of the Russians which had been surprisingly thorough and dispassionate.
 l fingered at the vast amount of destruc- tion he was, but he had not in the least been misled by wild reports and exasser- ations. He was intensely fair-minded to- ward the Russians ana quickly gave them credit for decent actions.
 Sees Humor of Situation l By a thorough sitting process he got to the bottom of the tales of the fugi- l lives and disproved much of what had been told him under the stress of wild excitement. Moreover he had seen the humor in many of the situations he had l encountered. and was not wholly de- pressed by what he had been through. Three hundred thousand inhabitants of | his province, he estimated, had fled from their homes or the remains of them, and I had to be cared for in various parts of Germany. To accomplish their care, typ ical German system has been resorted to, so that about 1900 fugitives from each section were taken care of together, ap- portioned off to districts all over Ger many.
 These 300.000 persons, old and very young people in the majority. have fled from the l agricultural districts all along the curving l Russian border. from district 300 l1lo- meters or more in length, and extending inward into the German empire anywhere from 10 to 75 milometers.
 l For the most part these fugitives are still absent from their homes, nor are they as yet being urged to return. few dis tricts, notably Loetzen. Darkehmen, An gerburg and Gumbimen, which are only
 partially destroyed. have been reopened ltO tnelr former lnna DltantS, WnO are StrdS- gling back slowly.
 1 Won Batocki found that about 100000
 horses have been driven off by the Rus sians, some 14.000 of which have been re- covered by German offensive movements. The loss Is very keenly felt. nevertheless, for horse breeding Is one of East Prussias main industries.
 The war fks told heavily upon the province in this respect, for thousands of the choicest animals early in the war were drafted for military purposes. Von Batocki and others already are consider l Ing ways and means for re-estabishing the breeding industry with government aid as soon as the war ends.
 The number of cattle taken by the Russians exceeded the number of horses, Won Batocki has found, but so also has the number recaptured been greatly in ex cess of the horses. Fully 100000 have been retaken by the Germans, but most of the
 animals were in a weakened condition that required almost immediate slaughtering.
 Peculiarities of Russians
 In his tour throughout his province, the ober-president said he found traces of many peculiarities on the part of the Russians, none stranger than their almost superstitious fear of espionage. Electric light plants had been demolished, sreat
 meats had been dug about hospitals to counteract the supposed influence of the
 
 suspected of spying had been carried off by the hundred to Russia.
 The fate of these is still In a majority of cases unknown to their friends and relatives. Some, it is now known, have been taken as far as Vladivostok in
 nurses, went only to Petrograd, where
 they immediately continued hospital work
 and where, with few exceptions, they
 were decently and carefully treated. von Batocki and all the others who
 have investigated conditions in East
 Prussia are utterly at a loss, however,
 to understand the Russians motives in
 carrying off aged women and months old children.
 If the Russian fear of Prussian spying
 has been great, they themselves have
 done their share. Tn addition to hav- ing had some few agents in the towns
 along the border, they made excellent use
 of the windmills that abound all over the province as signal stations. Patrols, or agents, were able to com
 municate with the columns behind quite effectively by turning the arms of the
 windmill in a prearranged manner.
 To this same purpose also the Rus i. sians found the hay stacks very useful. . and would set one afire to give one | signal two for another and so on. How many tons of hay have been burned for
 this purpose 1t is impossible to estimate,
 but the number is very large. The worst of the plundering and footing, the ober- president found, has been com mitted by Russian soldiers who have
 come into the province lately. The first troops to enter, last fall, were for the most part well sdisciplined andN respecta- ble. soldiers rather than looters. During all the time that the Russians |. occupied Tilsit and Grand Duke Nikaolai Nikolaivitch made 1t his headquarters : there was scarcely any violence or trouble.
 But as the first line Russians were de- feated and decimated their ranks were : taken by less disciplined men who have
 carried their deeds of violence farther and ] farther until East Prussia today is but a wreck of its former self.
 Ven Batccki Is unusually young for the position he holds-still in his early forties. He is a captain in the army, and few years ago served his province as land rat" or magistrate. Personally wealthy, | he retired to his big East Prussan estate, only to be called back into service when the war was well under way
 He is short, nervous, wiry and ac- tive. and on his tours of inspection does . the work with a thoroughness that is sur prising He fails to get excited over ex- citahlc tales. but probes them with a scinew hat disconcerting coolness. He makes his home for the present in
 Kocnigsberg in a typically old-fashioned