The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-10-11
MAN WITH TWO COUNTRIES" AIDS WAR PRISONERS Austrian Baron, But Also Eng fish Military Officer, He
 Was In Quandry. RATHER THAN FIGHT,
 HE JOINS RED CROSS Rudolf Carl vOn Slatin Has Unique and Interesting
 Career.

Stockholm, Sweden. Oct. IT. There came to Stockholm a little while ago one of the distinctly unique personalities of the great world war a man who had lived by the sword all most from boyhood, but who in the sudden turn of events in 1914 found himself, not man without a coun- try, but man with two countries two countries arrayed against each other in the bitterest of all world con- bats.
 He had served under the Austrian Crown Prince and had been aide to Kitchener of Khartoum. He had gone into Egypt when Kitchener was there as a lowly subaltem. For twelve years he was a prison of the fanatical Mahdi, and the wild Dervish tribes who threw back, for the first time in centuries, the ever advancing frontiers of civili- zation. Escaping from the clutches of the barbarians he won the oppor- tunity of participating in that remark able march across the desert and the wonderful campaign along the upper reaches of the Nile which brought ci- vilization back to the Sudan and won for Kitchener his first great fame.
 He came to Stockholm from Vienna unannounced and to all intents and purposes "incog." There were few who recognized him as Rudolf Carl von Slatin, baron of the Austrian Elm pire, Pasha of Egypt, lieutenant gen. eral of the Egyptian Army, major general of the British Army, and six times the recipient of the coveted British orders, from Companion of the Bath to Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, all won by distinguished service. He was Inspec- tor General of the Egyptian Forces under General Sir Francis Wingate when the crash of war in 1914 brought Ia new crisis in his already eventful life.
 When the parting of the ways came in 1914 S1atin found his love for Aus tria was still strong although most of his life had been devoted to Bri- tain and her wards in Egypt. He had become essentially a part of the Eng fish military machine. But he could not fight against his fatherland, nor could he serve in any way against the country which had meant so much to him and which had lavished honors upon him.
 So Slatin regretfulIy met the issue. He resigned his English and Egyptian commissions. sheathed the sword which had been part oe his very life, and passed into comparative security in the very midst of the war. Slatin felt, however, there was one service he could render with all propriety. He returned to Vienna attached himself to the Austrian Red Cross and now he is doing all he can to better the con- dition of prisoners of war, not alone in his own country but as part of a plan to bring about reciprocal agree ments among all the nations in arms Slatin suffered sufficiently himself as prisoner in the Sudan and have the | widest possible sympathy with any sort of captive. | It so happens that this very unique personality of the war now has come into more or less direct relationship with America. His mission in Stock holm was to meet here representa- | tive of the American Embassy in Pet rograd to discuss further means of re- 1 lief for the hundreds of thousands of l Austrian war prisoners now in Russia, as we'll as the immense colonies of Austrian civilians interned in various sections of the big northern empire The Austrian government, he said
 was ready and anxious to co-operate in any possible way to better the con- dition of prisoners generally and would gladly reciprocate for anything l Russia might do. He also, expressed I the appreciation of the Austrian gov ernment for the relief work already accomplished under the direction of the American Embassy at Petrograd. Slatin, who devoted his life to mili- tarism, speaks now of war only from the standpoint of humanity.
 'T would like so much to be able to say when it is Skll over that I had done something to Aelp the sufferers i in this tremendous war; he said some- what wistfu1ly to correspondent of
 The Associated Press
 We Austrians, you know" he add ed rather significantly, "have not much hate in our makeup. think a great deal of the il1-feeling in the war has been engendered by the ex- aggerations and bitter words printed constantly in the belligerent press. The newspapers do not give the people a chance for sober thought or refIec- tion.. But am not one of those who l believe that hatred, thus fostered, will continue long after peace is declared.
 "As one of the softening or .ameli-
 orating influences likely to hasten a return of good-feeling, believe that
 kindly treatment of prisoners of war
 is of paramount importance. I should also like to see a policy of exchange \ adopted as far as possible. In this Il way men who had been we'll treated.
 would return to their native land and
 bring word to the people at home that
 perhaps the enemy was not so black
 as he had been painted after all, that
 he had some kindly traits was a hu-
 man being and that the world might
 still be large enough for all of us to live in.
 'T do not believe we cah go on fight
 ing forever-I mean either at arms or
 through a so-called boycott. I do
 not believe the world at large will ap-
 prove boycott methods. I do not ,be-
 lieve this spirit of enmity can last. Ii
 must burn itself out in its own fire
 Take in the case of your own Ameri-
 can Civil War. What struggle be-
 tween man and man could have beer
 more bitter than that? Take the Fashoda incident between France and