Evening star., 1940-05-05
Treaty Holds Hope Of Better
Conditions for War Prisoners
American Army Officer En- Route as Neutral
Observer to See if Germany Complies
By Robert Brnskin.

Far from populous centers, an Amer
lean Army oficer soon will be making
the rounds of fast-filling German camps
for prisoners of war, possibly easing the
most dismal fate that can befall COM
batantS next to death and manning.
And in Great Britain and France an
oficer from another neutral power, prob
ably Sweden, will be investigating con-
ditions in the equally fast-filling prison
camps Of the allies.
Maj. Harvey H. Smith, relieved of
duty as an instructor at the Infantry
School at Fort Benning, Ga, will be fol-
lowing an almost traditional role for the
United States, which from 1914 to 1917
acted in similar capacity for both Sides
Maj. Smith, who sailed for Genoa on
April 13, will find his duties materially
increased since he left Fort Benning.
The number of prisoners has spurted
since the Norwegian invasion. It is gen.
orally believed almost $4,000 British,
French, German, Polish and Norwegians
soldiers, sailors and aviators-have
been captured since last September l.
Fate in Hands of Captors.
All are faced with the knowledge they
are prisoners for an uncertain time;
that treatment accorded prisoners of
war in the past had been consistently
below the level of civilization then cur
rent in the captor's country, and that all
too often they are helpless before brutal
guards and whims of camp commanders.
Starvation n
been their common lot since earliest his
tory.
But if the belligerents observe a treaty
signed in Geneva on July q, 1929, by As
nations, they will be receiving treatment
more humane than ever before. 1t will
be Maj. Smiths job to determine if the
treaty terms are being obeyed
At the time, it was passed over by the
press with hardly paragraph. 1t was
just another one of the 1000 or more
treaties signed at Geneva in the decade
that followed the World War.
All civilized" nations were represented
IN the treaty, which was initiated by
Switzerland, except Soviet Russia. Some
have long since been crushed by mill
tary juggernaut propelled by countries to
which treaties were in effect only until
they were no longer useful"
Thoughts of war then were only in the
minds of fictioneers and diplomats. The
representatives had, however, a docu-
mented history of more than 100000
prisoners taken in four and half years
Of World War-more than the number
Of men now facing each other across the
new no-man's land in France The
United States representative, Hugh Will
son, also had the knowledge of 4,12O
American prisoners in Germany, who
were fed and clothed through packages
sent by the Red Cross, and OF 48,796
Germans captured by the A. EFF.
Proved Treaty's Inadequacy.
The tragic history of World War pris-
oners indicated clearly that the 1907
Hague treaty had been Inadequate, al
though it provided comparatively better
treatment than in previous wars.
There was little the conferring nations
could not agree upon with alacrity in the
new treaty. Mr.. Wilson, then United
States Minister to Switzerland, pro-
claimed 1t lone of those rare occasions
wherein no profound differences of prin-
ciple could possibly arise among the
delegates"
The 1929 treaty, ratified by the United
States Senate in 1882, made the code of
conduct more detailed and left less to the
Judgment of the capturing country. It
forbade reprisals against war captives,
culled the best practices from the i'm
provisations made during the World War,
discarded many of the methods which
arose when the prisoner horde became
q drag upon the economic resources of
belligerents in the closing years and
hroadened the provisions for repatria-
ton or internment in neutral country
OF sick and disabled soldiers.
To prisoner it meant more than any,
thing that he would be treated, as near
as was practical, like the captor's own
soldiers.
When brought before the intelligence
of1cer he would be asked his name and
rank or regimental number, and other
questions which might give important
clues to his country's intentions. If he
refused to answer the other questions,
he could not be punished or forced.
His name would be sent to the Inter-
national Red Cross Committee In
Geneva, where his government would be
notified Immediately so that his name
could be removed from the purgatory OF