Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1916-08-06
,ENSLAV|NG ALIEN .
RESIDENTS WORST
FEATURE OF WAR
All Nations in Conflict De-
clared Guilty, Although
Not in Like Measure.
HARSHEST TREATMENT
IN FRANCE AND RUSSIA
Belief Expressed They Should
Have Been Furnished Means
of Leaving Country.
INFER INTENT HORRORS TOLD
i sH -
In Many Cases Persons Were Shut
Up in Unfit Places and Fed
Miserably.
HARSHEST TREATMENT
IN FRANCE AND RUSSIA
tINRERNMENT HORRORS TOLD
In Many Cases Persons We're Shut
Up in Unfit Places and Fed
M~iserably.

'AoShooty .r
Tin this and his next lettetoMarNo
dau describes the treatment of those
interned in war countries. As the
world-famous scientist has just beeu
released by the French government,
after eighteen months intepnment he-
cause of his Teutonic birth, no writes
from personal experience DR.. Nor
dau has received high honors in Francs
for his contribution to %soience.l
BERN. SWITZERLAND, July 1U-
The most abominab1e feature Of thx
present war. rich as It ia in atrooftied
Of all kinds, is the treatment of uns
armed civil populations by the beTliE-
erents. 1t is current talk to speak OF
tho bankruptcy of civilization, of the
relapse into old and Oldest barbarian.
But those that use these terms are
perhaps unaware how deep they mus
dive into the past in order to meet an
example of the cruelties that are at
present systematically committed.
All the nations at war are guilty,
although not In the same measure.
Some have invented r~efinements Of tor
lures. toDpings of violence, while others
limit themselves to lenient limitations.
But not one has consented to respect
the most elementary human rights and
the dignity OF personality.
h war broke out suddenly, and
surprised hundreds OF thousands OF
foreigners in countries where unex-
pectedly, from one day to the other,
they found themselves reduced to the
condition OF enemies.
We must try to realize the state of
Europe ut the beginning of the twen-
tieth century. Civilized man has
ceased to he a Zoophyte or a tree
rooted in the soil and bound to live
md die on the spot where it 10 born.
He has become accustomed to consider
freedom of movement one Of his funda-
mental privileges. a certain degree of
cosmopolitanisrn, which Is not neces-
sarily opposed to attachment to the
native country and to loyalty towards
the own people. forms part OF the
modern view of the world. Sure
enough. only unprincipled villains pro-
claim: "Ubi bene, ibi patria," Where
l live snugly. there is my country"
But nobody denies to himself the right
to look out for a favorable place where
he may hope to employ to the greatest
advantage his capacities, and to- har-
vest the richest fruits OF honest labor.
FRONTIERS III BEING
LOWERED EvERYyUHERE
True. the frontiers are far from be-
ing abolished: however, they are low
cred everywhere and interrupted by
doors opening in them. Travelling is
favored and rendered easy. Every Eff
fort is being made for developing inter-
national traffic. The growth OF inter-
national exchange OF commodities is
everywhere exalted as a national
triumph. The current of goods and
capital streaming from one country
into the other carries necessarily large
numbers of men along with it. These
strangers, retalned in the land partly
by their economical interests, but part
ly also by their sympathies. settle
there. found q home. marry perhaps a
native. Children are born to them for
whom the place where their father is
merely IL host has become the mother
ountry the only one which they know
and cherish. Its language becomes
theirs. its school where they receive
their education breathes into them the
national soul, the love of the country,
all it's manners of thinking and feel
ing. even It's ~prejudices.
In many eases the immigrant seeks
and obtains naturalization, he merges
into his new countrymen. and the war
changes nothing in his legal position,
i"N1 POoSiciy SApooo I'LL IL
Notwithstanding conflicts Of sentiment.
But more frequently no neglects his
measure of ~precaution, he preserves his
original nationality, and lives without
miSgivings in the foreign country
where he feels himself In plain security,
trusting the treaties
which in all civilized countries permit
the foreigner to establish himself, and
extend to him the protection of the
general law.
The legendary Colchis OF antiquity IL
the only land of which tradition tells
us that it massacred the stranger COM
ing to its weird shores. Even the
most inhospitable, the most stranger
hating empires of historical times, the
old China and Japan, before they threw
wide open their DOORS, set apart for
foreigners at least certain seaports or
quarters of towns where they were al
lowed to dwell undisturbed and to fol-
low their pursuits. How could a
stranger dream that all the time. in tho
very midst of civilized Europe, he was
living in n foors paradise and having
an abyss under his feet?
FOREIGNER BECOMES
OUTLAW OVERNIGHT
The war burst upon the foreigner.
and in every bellig erent country he had
shudderingly to learn that he was 2
marked prey, that he was an outlaw.
that overnight he had become a right.
less slave. In France and Russia the
harshest treatment vas inhictsd or
enemy aliens. Germany and Austria
Hungary established catogortea among
them, allowed some to go unhurt, and
robbed others of their liberty. Only
England and Italy were for innrys
months regardtui to them. and even
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