The Washington times., 1917-04-30
GERMANS IN ENGLAND
PLANNED REFUGE HERE
Now Fear, However, Prejudice
viii Exist in U. 5. After War.
By JUDsON C. wELLIvER.

LONDON. April 1s.-I couldn't help
wondering what Charles Dickens
would have thought IL he could have
come back to his beloved London and
seen that internment camp. For
Dickens was responsible for 1t more
than anybody else.
The internment camp, this particu-
lar one, may be regarded as a monu-
ment to Dickens. 1t was built as the
workhouse of st. Mary's parish,
Islington. rather less than fifty years
ago, during that curious era of senti-
mentalism about society's duty to the
poor, which was really started by
Dickens stories OF the shameful con-
dition under which the unfortunate
of England lived during the times Of
which he wrote.
Better Than Royal Palace.
This workhouse of St. Mary's par
ish, Judged by its exterior archItec-
ture and by the grounds and gardens
surrounding it, would really be a good
deal more desirable place in which to
live than some OF the royal palaces
in London; for example, the sad and
dingyy old pile OF brown brick that
Is St. James Palace. but in which
at present none of the royal family Ia
willing to live.
Ones regard for royalty looks up a
bit on learning that the princely
households all eschew st. James as
they would smallpox. 1t looks more
like a high class livery stable or per-
haps a railroad freight depot than a
royal residence. Nowadays It would
have to be considerably reorganized
and improved in its exterior scheme
to make IL rank artistically with a
really high class garage in the better
section of an American town.
Not so, not by any means so, of the
erstwhile workhouse OF st. Mary's
parish Prince or pauper? Pauper a
thousand times IL it carried the privi-
lege OF living at St. Mary's workhouse
instead OF at ST. James Palace.
At St Mary's there are inmates who
have lived in England so short a
time as ten years. One man told me
he had lived here thirty years, had
no relatives of whom he knew In
Germany. and regarded himself as
just as good an Englishman as any
Of his guards. He had been the man
aging director and chief executive OF
q big business establishment in Lon
don, spoke English without any ac-
cent. whereas when he first entered
the institution his German was so bad
that he had difficulty in conversing
with his fellow inmates. Some Of the
latter actually know no German at
ALL
Their Philosophy Interesting.
The philosophy OF these thoroughly
anglicised Germans is interesting.
Of them whose business had been OF
considerable Importance and had been
utterly dissipated admitted that a
good many OF the inmates who would
have been perfectly safe and loyal
British subjects II they had been left
alone had been embittered by their
experiences. Nearly all Of them had
suffered very serious losses, their
properties and business being dissi-
pated, and OF course their positions
being lost.
Moreover, they are all worried
whether at the end Of the war they
will be allowed to go back to their
old situations. for they fear that the
prejudice against Germans will make
1t impossible for them TO re-establi
themselves in England. So nearly
all OF them are planning to go out to
the Colonies, to the United States or
to the Far East Some of them ex-
pressed particular regret that the
United States should have entered the
war, because so many Germans scat
tered about the world had intended
to go there. Now they are fearful
that the same prejudice will prevail
there as in England.