Evening star., 1941-08-26
BY BETTY SARGENT.

DN
correspondence of The Stars Special News
Service.
GENEVA-If you would know of
the misery and suffering and heart
ache in a modern warning world,
you must go to a building which
was dedicated to peace that failed.
For the present home of the
International Red Cross Prisoners
Bureau once housed the League
Of Nations assemblies.
There, imperSonally recorded on
colored filing cards. you will find
100000 stories of the fate of priS-
oners of war, of sick and wounded
of civilians interned in belligerent
countries, of refugees.
You will learn from the cards how
some of these people have died,
and their families have been in
formed; how others have exchanged
news with their relatives; how food
packages were sent to this or that
prisoner.
Others of those colored cards say
only: Family asks information.
last heard from on Maginot front"
Surpasses 1914-18 Record.
The cards are the work of a
bureau which already has sur
passed the total of its work dur
ing the 1914-l8 war.
At the end of May of this year
10 months after war began-10,-
100000 letters and inquiries had
been received or sent by the War
Prisoners Bureau. as compared with
a total of barely 100000 letters
and inquiries received or sent at
the end of four years OF war in 1918.
Frances military collapse, fol-
lowed by the Italian-Greek war
Germany'S Balkan campaign, and
now the war in Russia has put
colossal task on the shoulders OF
the International Red Cross Com
mittee composed solely OF Swiss
members, and its Prisoners Bu-
reau where more than 1900 Swiss
citizens are employed. largely in
voluntary capacity.
In an effort to keep down over
head and speed results. volunteer
groups were formed i'll 20 Swiss
cities to aid the Geneva bureau
in reading and classifying letters
sent from all parts OF the world
by anxious relatives and friends
OF missing soldiers, sailors and war
victims. More than 1,200 men
women and young people offered
their services free Of charge. bring
ing the total personnel up TO $500
International Red Cross workers
in Switzerland.
The major work of the bureau
is to centralize information relat-
ing to captured or missing mill
tary and naval men.
Sources of Information.
Information is gathered from Of
fetal lists of prisoners and lists
of those who died in battle sent
in by belligerent governments; cards
announcing capture sent in by
prisoners themselves, special in
QuirieS and other sources.
Through this exchange the "un-
known soldiers" of today'S war
sometimes are brought back to life
located in a prison camp or per-
haps in a hospital.
AS soon as the official lists arrive
In Geneva, they are photographed
and forwarded to the appropriate
enemy government. BY the end of
last March the bureau had trans
mitted 269 .583 pages of photo
graphed lists. In many cases lists
are received and sent telegraph
cally.
These lists contain all informa-
ton necessary for identification of
the prisoner, as we'll as the place of
imprisonment, his state of health
and the address Of his family.
The personnel OF the Geneva bu-
reau then puts all such information
on individual cards, filed alphabet
cally and cross referenced
Although prisoners are allowed to
send cards direct to their families
as we'll as to the Geneva bureau,
informing them OF their where
abouts and state of health, there
Ten rs great QtltS III arrival De
cause of poor postal communica-
tionS or, in many cases, TO change
of families addresses through flight.
More than 100000 cards sent in by
French prisoners themselves have
been received at the Geneva agency.
Reveal Battle Deaths.
Among the best sources of in
formation on missing persons are
cards sent in by soldiers reporting
deaths of comrades buried in line
of battle
Many families in France went for
months living in hope that their
sons husbands. or fathers were
alive in German prison camp, only