The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-21
HOW TRANSIT POST OF SWISS IS WORKED Handles Mail for Prisoners
 of War TRANSFER OF MONEY French Postal Order Sent to Swiss and Changed to Latter; Then Hon. 0red by Germans-Are Many
 BlackbOrdered Envelopes
OF MONEY

Berne Switzerland. February 13 Special Ut was with a feeling of per sonal interest that I watched the sort ing of a portion of thA 100000 commu nications which on an average pass through the Swiss transit post" in a single day for the prisoners of war In France and Germany. At one time I was cut off also by war from the out side world for four long months, and l recollect well the arrival of the first batch of mail bags, the impatience with which we awaited the sorting of their contents, and the handing over of our little bundles of letters.
 I recollect too, the shoe when I mo- ticed black bordered letter peeping out from my bundle. Oh, the number of black bordered envelopes now pass ing through this well intentioned Swiss go-between office of the prisoners oe war and their relatives! Oh, the num- Der of letters which, instead of bring ing joy to the recipients, will be re- ceived in the encampments in France and Germany with tears and sadness.
 Many BlackbOrdered Missives
 The Swiss government has generously made itself the gratuitous interme- diary for enabling prisoners to keep in touch with their relatives; if, amongst the thousands of money or ders, small parcels of "comforts,' and welcome letters it forwards daily into both countries there is an all too ter rible proportion of black bordered ell velopes, it does not detract from the humanitarian charater of the enterprise
 The first department 1 visited was that which deals with the transfer of money to the prisoners. In both France and Germany money orders on large sized distinctive colored cards are issued for the payment of money to prisoners of war. These are not en- closed in envelopes, but are addressed to the transit post at Berne. Here they are replaced by a Swiss order for payment on yellow card, which is honored by the postal authorities in France and Germany, respectively. No fewer than 40 girl clerks are employed in the work of transferring the details of the original order, Frenh or German, whichever it may be, to the neutral Swiss order, and although there is fre- quently a delay of 12 or Il days in the arrival of the order from the town of origin into the Berne office there is never delay exceeding three days in the Berne transit post"
 Out of curiosity I turned over a pile of French and German orders l found some for such small amounts as 50 centimes and l mark, 10 and 20 cents, but the av- craze seemed to be about S1. From Sep temper 1 to the end of the year the transit post at Berne had been the medium through which 221, ,6S7 money or ders, representing $700,0 900, were transmit ted to French prisoners in Germany and ,045 money orders, representing $40 coo, to German prisoners in France. Since De- cember 1 the same organization is un- dertaking the transfer of money to Rus sian prisoners in Austro-H Hungary and to Austro Hungarian prisoners in Russia. Indicates Fate of Prisoner As the neutral Swiss order has to be re- turned to Berne for the purpose of set clement of the sums paid out to pris- oners of the respective governments, it has become a valuable document indicat- ing the fate of prisoners. Often it has been the means of knowing whether a missing" is alive or dead.
 The postal department for the reexpedi- | tion of letters, post cards and small par 1 cells to prisoners of war is not less inter- | esting. It is run, also gratuitously, by | the Swiss military postal department, with the aid of a few specially qualified bi- 1 lingual sorters. Neither the French nol 1 1CIIIldn uOSldi take the 1 trouble to sort the prisoners of war cor l respondence with their relatives. If the | letter comes from a prisoner it is stamepc approved by the camp commandant il France or Germany; if it is addressed to i a prisoner it bears the censor's stamI | from the place of origin, and has to b, read again on arrival at destination be. 1 fore delivery. On an ordinary day 1A 1 bags of unsorted letters, collected at Pon taller and Frankfort respectively, are re ceived in the office of the Berne 'trans post"
 1 The staff which deals with illegble ol | wrong addresses has met with many pug zles. Some people had only heard bs word of mouth that their relatives were
 prisoners at a place they had never heard | of before, and which they transcribed 1 theoretically.
 | Scores of letters are arriving iron | France addressed to Siberia! They ar, destined for prisoners in a camp in Silesia l It is evident that numbers of people arr
 being told that their relatives were pris oners of war in Cilecie mistook in fo 1 Siberie.
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 Orchestra Rehearsal Today
 The members of the Birmingham or