The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1915-09-25
STRIVING TO AID
CIVIL PRISONERS

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Sept. A. =
The American consulate-general at
Moscow which has, since the begin
ming of the war, been delegated by
the German government to handle
German civil prisoners in Russia, is
now making a determined effort to
return these prisoners to Germany
so that they may not suffer the hard
ships of another winter in the in
terror of Russia. Although these
prisoners have not been the victims
of actual cruelty on the part of the
Russian officials, their condition has
been indescribably w%retched. Hun
dreds of them have died from cold,
starvation and disease.
A recent order issued by Prince
Usupoff, the governor of Moscow,
stated explicitly that every German
or Austrian of non-Slavic origin, re-
CARELESS of age, state of health or
any mitigating circumstances what
ever, must leave Moscow before Aug.
IA, either for Germany or for n of
the interior governments which have
been chosen for the internment of
civil prisoners and which already
barber over a hundred thousand men,
ONE and children.
This order meant certain death
for ore of Moscow residents whose
physical condition vas such that even
a short journey under the best con-
ditions would have been dangerous.
Tnhn CnadOrocc tho Anonrino ann-
s~ul-general, who had made a special
study of those cases, appealed to the
governor of Moscow for discrimina-
ton in the execution of the order of
expulsion, but popular feeling has
run so high against the German and
Austrian subjects in Russia hat it
was stated that exceptions could not
be made. An American correspond
ent sitting in the office of the con-
~sul-general watched the stream of
foreign subjects who were suddenly
confronted with expulsion from the
country which they had learned to
consider their own. Most Of them,
although German or Austrian sub
jects, had lived so long in Russia tn
they were thoroughly Russian in
their sympathies, and some of the
women had even been devoting their
time in sewing and making clothing
for Russian soldiers. For a large
percentage of them to return to Ger
meny, where all their associations
had long been broken Dr. a seclusion
in the interior of Russia we're after
natives offering an equally dismal
prospect.
Except in extreme cases, serious
illness and infirmity do not interfere
with the deporting of the patient.
Crowded into trains commonly used
for cattle, almost without food,
~scantily clad and in various condi-
tions of disease and despair, these
miserable persons are subjected to a
railway journey which lasts days,
and in a great many cases are forced
to march overland for sixty or sev-
enty miles from the rilroad station
to the camp where they are to be in
termed.
The sanitary conditions IN these
Trains are VIC anu lHclc 10 EVERY
possibility for the spread of disease.
There is no assistance for the sick,
and there is no protection against in
lection for those who are we'll. On
the march from the railroad to the
camp large numbers have frozen to
death along the way. The lot of
these people is one which it would be
difficult to exaggerate.
Mr.. Snodgrass is at present trying
to convince the governors of the
various provinces that their CO.
operation is necessary unless the con-
ditiOn of German civil prisoners in
Russia is to become a national scan
dial.