BRITISH PRISONERS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2343, 28 December 1914, Page 8

BRITISH PRISONERS

IN NAPOLEON'S DAY HOW THEY FARED IN FRANCE (By Libeh.) : Just a hundred years ago the British! prisoners of. war in France wore released, and more W less joyously made their way back to their own country. In his new book, "Napoleon the Gaoler" (Methuen and Co.), Mr. Edward Fraser has collected:and strung together, with explanatory comment, the personal narratives of some of these prisoners, who, many of them, went through exceptional experiences and adventures well worthy of being chronicled preserved'. Somehalfmillion men, in round numbers', passed the .frontiers of France between 1803 and 1814, as prisoners of war. Of these it has been roughly estimated that 12,000 were British, and of these, Mr. Fraser tells us, more than a third were merchantmen officers and sailors, captured at sea by French, frigates and privateers. Of the soldiers, some were stragglers _ captured during Sir John Moore's disastrous Corunna campaign; others had been members of the illfated Walchereii expedition; others, yet again, had trickled by driblets-into the French depots during the five years of the Peninsular War. ' ■ '

It'was probably due to the fact that during the same period, 1803 to 1814, no fewer than 122,400 French prisoners, practica-llj all soldiers and sailors, were landed in England, .that Napoleon could not venture to treat his English prisoners as he treated the captured soldiers of his beaten European enemies, the Austrians taken at Ulm and Austerlite > aiid Wagram, the Russians swept up after tho Jena campaign, or his, yet more cruelly ill-used Spanish captives. • The Continental prisoners were-'brutally ill-treated, even before they left the field of battle. Stripped of their cloaks and boots, many even of their .uniform coats, the hapless Austrians captured at Ulmwere started off on their long'tramp to France, regardless of what they-might suffer from the inclemency of the weather, the clothing, of which they had been despoiled, being given to the French soldiers, who, robbed by rascally contractors, were almost in rags. After the Jena campaign, .the Prussian prisoners were set to work at the hardest of hard work, either for the municipalities or at digging and ploughing the fields. Some wore engaged in digging'canals; others making military roads, in building embankments or reclaiming marsh lands. As to the Spanish prisoners, they came off worst of all. Of 12,000. "pale; and' emaciated Spaniards": (the heroic defenders of Saragossa- and Gerona)i not 6000 reached the Pyrenees on,their way to France.. Most of the-missing men had been" shot on the way. "Three to four hundred a day-perished," weare told, "killed either for trying to escape, or because the wretched, worn-out creatures were incapable of keeping up along tho line of march—when they cennot march they are shot." : ' . . ■ French Depots. It is, however, .with the story of the British-prisoners th'at Mr. Fraser'sbook is mainly concerned. , Less harshly treated, for the reason noted above, than the unhappy 1 Austrians, Prussians and Spaniards, the lot of the British was hard enough, exposed as they were to the malice and spite and rancorous hate of ill-conditioned and tyrannical depot masters. The'chief distributing depot was Verdun, the fortress which has figured so prominently in tlie cablegrams of late.. Many were permanently imprisoned 1 there, others .were drafted to overflow depots at Epinal, Metz, Nancy,, and other towns. Prisoners who attempted to escape or who were charged ; with being disorderly were sent to the "punishment depots"; at Bitche, Sjedan, or Sar- , relouis, for rigorous confiiiement, : in the dungeons there. Of the horrors' which were perpetrated at these, "punishment depots," Mr. .Fraser gives a gruesome account. On.the whole, however, the captives were not unhappy, > Not all'the French commandants were brutal. Many showed marked consideration and kindness to their charges. At-Verdun, after a time, the prisoners seem to have quietly settled down to a.life which was far from being miserable.'. Officers were allowed liberty.within the interned area; juniors during, the first, six: months of captivity had to report themselves at 8 a.m. and- i p.m.- at the Hotel de Ville. At nine they went to bed, .tolled to their couches by the cathedral bell. Allowances for maintenance, ranging from £4 a month to 50; sous : (2si Id.) a day, according to rank, were made by the French Government. Sometimes, however,ydishonest officials intercepted, the allowance and real hardship eneued. \ Rations ant) Allowances. • P/risonere who were tradesmen were allowed to follow • their occupations if they could find employers, and part of their-wages they could retain. At first the dietary scale,was, if not extravagant, at least fairly ample.. English prisoners were allowed daily, one pound of bread; one ration (of meat)j vegetables and salt,'; and 7£ centimes in cash (the same as for French soldiers of the line). The prisoners of all; other nations, it was-decreed, belong ■to the second class, aud receive only one, half of tho pay of the privates.of the French. Army, and one ration of bread each.'. After a time the • dietary .scale'.of ; the English was considered too.'costly, : and was cut down so low that.-it became necessary to raise- a War IMief Fund in England to provide food and clothing: One commandant, at,, Verdun, Colonel Courajles, cunningly robbed the poolBritish officers, but eventually' was summarily dismis'seorwbeh the'full extent of his malpractices became known at Pans. His successor, the Baron de Beauchesne, was, it appears, the. very reverrei, of his base predecessor. When he died, early in 1813, his "death was so deeply deplored by the English prisoners that they raised six thousand francs.to rear a monument to' hie memory in token of their love and gratitude.: Many:or\ the British officers "belonged to wealthy families, and being assisted liberally with money from England , lived, if not luxuriously, at least in reasonable comfort. They had their' clubs; at one of which, alas, a regular Touge" etnoir bank was in full swing'..■••A--'.pack-i-of'-beagles was etarted/ cock-fighting- and duck-hunting "ffere favourite sports, drinking, dicing, and- duelling became all too prevalent. There was 'an English church and English eiens up over shops in the main street. Tlie French Freemasons, we read, welcomed British brethren, and sometimes even pushed fraternal sympathy to the extent of assisting the prisoners, to escape.

Some Unpaid Debts. It is sad to have to record that when the prisoners were finally roleasod they left behind thorn heavy debts to confiding French tradespeople. On this subject Mr. Frascr says:—* "The" private debts of all kinds, tradesmen's bills, and so forth, left behind by the British prinoners in their hasty exodus from Verdun, amounted to three and a half million francs (£140,000). Some of tho prisoners, no doubt,' on peace being re-established, sent money over to pay off their creditors, but .-apparently not very many wore so honost. ■■."' . . , Uiidor the Treaty of Paris, France paid in cash to England, by way of estimated compensation for English property confiscated at the Revolution, sixteen million frauesi an ,-■ anjouat.wWchj fch^clause

had been met, proved excessive, no fewer than nine millions of francs remaining unpropriated. • That surplus was retained by the British Treasury, who shabbily and dishonestly, on the strength of a Crown lawyer's quibble, refused to pay any of it back to France for tho benefit of the Verdun, creditors. . . . The money is, in this year 1914, still owing to the descendants of the Verdun townsfolk of 1814. Is it too late now, at this time of our Entente Cordialo with France, on the point of national honour, as an act of bare justice, for a settlement to be made?" • ■

Fully Half Mr. Fraser's book is taken up with the personal stories of officera and men who attempted, some with success, to escape from France. Some of these narratives read like a romance. Doubtless when the present war is over there' will be similar stirring tales to be told of' English prisoners in Germany. The illustrations include reproductions of old engravings and original sketches by the prisoners. Mr. Fraser'a book is. not only a chronicle of adventure, but it is, in its way, a valuablo historical record, of ■ special interest at a time like the present. (New Zealand price, 65.)