The Arizona copper camp., 1917-12-01
|MTERNED GERMANS
ARE TREATED LIKE .
SONS OF ROYALTY

While, by German testimony, the
Germans are numbering non-combat-
ants and often taking no prisoners"
while their treatment of Belgian and
French women is only fiendish, nearly
1000 German officers and sailors are
interned at hotel in North Carolina,
where the rates were 81 and upwards.
The contrast almost drives one to
say there is such thing as being too
Christian. The hotel was the Noun
tain Park hotel, a sumptuous estab-
lishment short distance from Ashe-
vile, and julius Chambers thus de-
scribes the. place and the treatment
of these enemy aliens:
"Thither 971 officers, and sailors
from the German steamers at Boston
and New York were sent because the
quarters at Ellis island were not COM
fortable.' This is the only reason as
signed. The officers are fed on Ger
man cooking, prepared by the kochs
of the steamers and paid for by Uncle
Samuel Some complaint has been
heard because the guests are not sup
Piled with Rhine wines and Russian
caviar, but proof that officers and
men are satisfied with their quarters
and food is the fact that only one man
has violated his parole of honor and
made his escape. The German Off
GERS plead in his defense that he was
not right in this head think it
quite likely. A barbed wire fence
surrounds the park in which a mod
ern hotel stands; the SO. mountain
eers-called 'watchmen,' out of regard
for the feelings of the guests
work in three shifts, so that there are
only twelve guards on duty at one
time.
"The officers occupy the luxurious
rooms in the hotel, each suite with
it's BATH the sailors are quartered in
barracks built by native and interned
carpenters The latter are paid for
such work as they do! This extra in
come, with what they are supposed
to receive from the steamship COM
panies, brings them better wages than
they could earn in their beloved Ger
many. 1t is a picnic.
AS Chambers says, pacifists and
liver-hearted Americans will do well
to contrast the treatment these Ger
man prisoners are receiving with the
inhuman barbarities heaped on Amer
lean, Canadian and English prisoners
Of war at the various stockades in
Germany, especially at the Lubec and
Brandenburg camps.
Willet Smith, an American aviator
and prisoner of war, who recently
escaped into Sweden, declares, in
sworn report to this government, that:
THE food supply to him and his
companions was so meagre and un-
eatable that, on their way to work,
prisoners pulled up dandelions and
yellow dock weed and ate the roots
raw! At the Brandenburg camp the
prisoners had no blankets and many
Of them only shreds of shoes, in
which they were forced to appear at
roll-calls in snow and slush. They
are not paid for their labor, but are
compelled to toll eight to ten hours
daily, Sundays included. After four
months at Lubec camp the American,
Canadian and English prisoners are
haggard scarecrows, due to small
quantities of poor food, many priva-
tions and over-work." ="
Of course, we are a Christian ma
uion, and the laws of war require
proper treatment of prisoners. But
do they require that they be main
tanned in luxury while our men soon
to be headed for German prison
camps will have the portion outlined
above at Lubec and Brandenburg?
SFP\/C.F