Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1918-10-12
GERMAN RULERS
Do NOT WANT To
SWAP PRISONE RS
Returned Soldiers Would Car
~ Truth 'of Kindly Treat
nent and Other Propaganda
Injurious to Teuton Cause,
BY HAROLD Il. BECHTOI,
(Europcan Manager of Newspaper En-
prise ASSOciationl

DiISt .As>Dtlllblst
London, Oct 1.-THE German
rulers do not want to exchange pris-
oners with the British: because
The German rulers know:
That the returned German prisoners
would carry the truth to all parts of
Germany;
That they would scatter throughout
the empire stories of the kind, consid-
crate treatment they received;
That they would expose German lies
and schemes, and tell the Germans at
home how the kaiser and his cohorts
have fooled them;
That they wuld tell their friends and
relatives that England has plenty Of
food; plenty of everything; that the
U-boat is failure.
That they would show the German
people that the kaiser and the militar-
lists are leading them to certain crush
ing defeat; that the longer they pin
their faith to these rulers the farther
they will be led down the black valley
The above is not conjecture. 1t is
the inside story of the reason behind
the German delay in ratifying the
agreement reached with the British
at The Hague a few months ago Tor
the exchange of prisoners.
Excuse of Germany.
Several months ago the British
sought an agreement on the exchange
of able-b bodied men. A meeting at
The Hague was arranged and an
agreement full of conditions was
drawn up But the expected ratifica-
tication from Germany did not arrive.
Questions were asked. And 1t de-
veloped that the German government
had put forward a demand that, be-
fore it would ratify the agreement,
Britain must pledge its word that GER
tain German subjects in China--China!
mark you-should not be expelled or
interned.
China had announced that she in
tended to intern or expel certain
German subjects. And that is just why
the Germans used it,
How tolerantly the German pris-
oners are treated is best illustrated pyI
the recent report of commander OF
a camp in the west of England; that
a party of German prisoners went on
strike because they were asked TO-
work on farms with British consclen-
tious directors. OF course the strike
was quickly ended, but the strikers
were not abused.
Can you imagine any prisoner I'M
Germany mentioning strike for any
cause and living to tell about it?
And Berlin is taking hand in the
exchange for British and Turkish
prisoners! Austria has guaranteed
such exchange. but Germany refuses
ships safe conduct, which, of course,
makes the paper agreement worthless.
Treatment by Austria.
r~l,o t,,yopty-fiftb train af rpDntfiat-
ed Italian war prisoners, since eX-
change began with Austria, arrived in
Rome recently. All of the 500 prison.
'ers had tuberculosis: their eyes were
dilated; their clothes hung like bags;
their hands were just bones covered
by skin; their daily fare in the camp
in Bohemia was one loaf of chestnut
bread for sixteen prisoners; the death
rate in this one camp was sixty day;
many were kept alive by food parcels
that arrived for comrades already
dead
In one instance ten Americans and
40 British were compelled to work on
railways, carrying heavy rails and
pushing trucks from 8 a. m. to p.
m. Their food was the ordinary Ger
man soup and one slice of bread a.
meal. These men became weaker and
weaker, and on August "a arrived I'M
Crossen camp, almost starved.
| talked with a prominent London
surgeon who is devoting most of his
time to the disabled British who have
been returned.
1.-THE treatment all of these men re-
he said, was rotten! They
are all starved many of them have
gone mad from their sufferings, and
many others have been terribly mu-
tilated by amateur or unskilled sur
geons in the German camps"