East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1919-12-03
UPAEAVALS
CAST MANY WRECKED
REFUGEES ON SWISS
Individuals From Every Wreck
ed Government in Europe at
Sea Without Money or Le-
gal or Civil Rights.
By HENRY WOOD

! Omitted Press Staff Correspondent
BERNIE Switzerland, Dec. 3.-In
the efforts of the peace conference to
reweave the torn political and social
fabric of Europe only nations have
been considered to date.
The rights of individuals have not
even been mentioned
And yet, Switzerland, for example,
today is filled with individuals from
every overturned government of
Europe, each cne of whom has legal
and moral claims against some gov
ernment that has either disappeared
or is being reformed.
Until these claims can be re-estab-
lished these individuals are tiny bits
of shipwreck on the turbulent sea of
European political and social life
Some are without means of existence;
some are without country or national
ity. some are without legal or civil
right.
Thousands Left Stranded
In manv cases their respective
rights ceased to exist when some gov
ernment disappeared or was succeed
ed another. More otter the new gov7
ernment refused to accept the obliga-
tions Of the old one and thousands On
1
No authority short of the peace con-
ference itself could possibly hear. ad-
just and enforce the rights of each one
of these individuals as il is now trying
to hear. adjust and enforce the rights
of each nation That it will never be
able to take up the cases Of individu-
ais is certain. That they will never
succeed in establishing their rights
themselves seems equally certain. Ap-
parently only one fate awaits them
and that is to live out their allotted
existence without ever again becoming
worked back into the new social and
political fabric of Europe that is be-
coming woven, leaving it to the COM
ing generation to adjust itself into the
new order of things.
These individual cases. in Switzer-
land now amount to thousands while
those who still remain in the countries
where their legal. civil and financial
rights formerly existed unquestionablH
number millions. The recital here OF
a few typical examples of individual
cases now in switzerland will give
some idea of how varied. how pathetic
and how helpless they are. and of how
fI.o'y and delicately the social and
political ia brie of Europe was before
il was torn asunder. and how long it
NAV take before 1t can again be re-
woven into a smooth serviceable piece
of cloth.
Admirars Wife Sews
Living in the most modest quarters
of Berne and yet still surrounding her
self with a little of the dignity that
pertained to her former station Is the
wife of one of the highest admirals In
the former Austrian navy. In the
neatly woven social and political ran
ric of before the war. she was entitled
to a pension as the widow OF hlsh
naval officer. 1t amounted to apout
8 600 crowns a year, which was suffi-
cfent to enable her to live. with the
heavy depreciation of Austrian cur
repcy her pension now nets her 1s
cents day. By knitting, sewing,
darnin2 and taking in mending she Is
able to get along. II her health holds
out she will probably never become
dependent on charity.
There is also at Berne the former
nrofessor of economies at the Univer-
sity Of CzernovitZ. Before the war
because of his international reputation
he had been designated as exchange
nrofessor at Yale When the Rou-
uanians occupied Bukovina and the
adjacent provinces. the German as
well as tho local universities were CLOS
ed and the faculties dismissed II not
actually chased out.
The professor is now more than
sixty years OF age. Under the system
IL vogua in most Of the European
before the war where the
are apart of the state sys-
tenn of education the professors are
pensioned and retired at the age OF
six,cv. The Roumanians, however