Arizona republican., 1915-07-25
CARD SYSTEM
 ID KEEP TAB
 ON PRISONERS
Another Instance of the Methodical Manner in Which the Germans Look After Their Millions of Unwilling Guests
ASSOCIATED PRESS p1sPArcHl

IAssocIATED PRESS DIsPATCHl
 BERLIN July 34-The exact reg istration of the huge horde of over d million prisoners Of war in Ger manN so that rank, service divis- ion and place of confinement of each man can be 4nstantly determined. has been perIected to an astonishing degree by count SchWerin- q 60-s ear old captain of cavalry Today the relatives of any French, Russian. English. Canadian Italian, Serbian, Montenegrin. Belgian or Japanese prisoner III Germany can ascertain within twenty hours where that soldier is and what his condition is
 This k made possible through a card catalogue that all but oeggars description, 1t Is probably the mosl perfect thing of it's size and kind in existence, In it's creation two other systems have had to be discarded as inadequate. and the work and pains laVished on them duplicated. In it's maintenance eighty persons are engaged, while its inventor. Count Schwerin, works twelve hours a day, overseeing things.
 Each day dozens and scores of lists of nanles pour into Count Schlver- ms department of the war ministry 1T the sDorotheenstrasse here In Ser lin. These lists give the necessary iuformalIoh for filling out the cards. so that each shall contain the nan.e- and forname of the prisoner his ser vice branch, regiment and company the place and date of his capture, and the place where he is held. Ii le is wounded the nature oI his wounds and the hospital where ie IS are added.
 Scores of young women fill out tGe cards. which then go to sorters. un- der the inspection Of d man who in peace times is a head instructor in one of Berlin's higher schools Be fore the sortcrs stand wooden cases built after the fashion of type eases, but deeper. It was the sight of cor.- positors throwing in" type that led Count Schwerin to adopt these eases.
 The first set of sorters take the cards just as they come. in alpha betical confusion, from the writiIs room and divide them according to the Initial letter from A to z. Other sorters then take the. As and sub di.ide them svstematically-into Aa Aaa, Ab, Aba. Abo. and so on. Thou sands of cards are sorted and filed daily-fOr the list of prisoners never stops growing.
 The names also are divided ac- cording to nationality. and put away in the cases that flank all four walls of three rooms There are between a5.000 and 3e.0oo Belgian names, from 16.G00 10 1s.9oO English, names. and hundreds of thousands ot French and Russian. With but one excep- tion the Serbians. Montenegrins and Japanese lyho are prisoners in Ger many are civilians of military age .nterned here
 Approximately SG0 letters come to Count Schwerin's "Kartothek" daily - requests for information about reia- tives or friends IL is the boast and pride of this officer that no request remains unanswered longer than twenty-four hours forty eight at the very outside. when the letter of in quiry is in difficult Russian
 To facilitate relatives 4n getting information about the foreign sol Giers, however, Count Schwerin has forwarded the complete data about prisoners. as fast as received at the war ministry and filed in the card catalogue to the governments at London, Paris and St Petersburg and to the Red Cross huadGuartera at Geneva, Brussels, Copenhagen and Berlin.
 One of the most interesting fea- lures of the card catalogue work is the fact thae many men give false names and data because they are ashamed of being in captivity and do not want anyone in their native land to know that they have been taken prisoner.
 An interesting example of this came to light recently in 9 case con corning 19-year- old Prince Chimay of Belgium. He had enlisted under an assumed name and was captured. jle was put in q prison camp as a private soldier. In due time in quiries about the young man carle ln- His name did not appear in the card catalogue. and before the young man was found it had been neces- sary 10 hunt out every soldier of his regiment, scattered in half a 1ozen camps all over Germany. to take them before military court, and de-