RUHLEBEN

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 112, 29 January 1918, Page 7

RUHLEBEN

THE THIRD ANNIVERSARY

GRIM AS EVER

(By Frederio William Wile, in the

"Daily Mail.")

it On a wind-swept plateau fringim* 3- Berlin on the . west, hetween 3000 and a- 4000 odd Britoiiß will keep to-day as rt a grim anniversary. It was on November 6, 1914, that they were caught in ;s tho whirlpool of the war and thrown it into Ruhleben, there to live the lives le of men amid conditions originally deis signed for horses. That tliey are still i- in existence is no merit of their cap--10 tots, for evidence is plentful that but ir for their own dogged pluck and the j- food supplied from homfe these Briy tish civilians would long ago have siic:o cumbcd to insanity or starvation, or it both. n Many of them oven to-day are on the )- brink of such a fate. Hundreds are Is suffering from "barbed-wire disease" in is one form or another. They are making Is' heroic efforts to remain merry and bright in tho liever-say-die spirit of 0 their race. Before me lies a recent y number of the "Camp Magazine" magn nificciif, yet saddening proof, of British :- cheer, in tho midst of distress almost it unbearable. But I know from things •- which may not be printed hetween it's a covers that the martyrs of Ruhleben •, are only whistling to keep up their courage—that in tho aggregate they d are a nerve-shattered and health-wreck-s ed community. Let us remember Ttuli- , leben to-day. Let us urge the British d authorities to recognise that probablv i- nothing short of release from GerI ; l!al, y either return to England.or inp. ternment in neutral countries—is likep ly to preserve these undermined Brife toiifc as useful members of society. In London official quarters one is asf sured that conditions this November . are considerably better than in Novenib 1914, when tho British were liei'd--21 ™ Ruhleben, the first victims of s | the Hate wave about to engulf the - German people. But there seems small ;J reason to doubt that, compared with E the housing enjoyed by German civilj lans interned at such camps as the Alexandra Palace, "Ruhleben 1 b "accom- - modation" is primitive. ■ _ Winter will soon arrive in Prussia. 1 How merciless that winter is no one ■ knows better than myself, who weathered more than ten of them. Ruhleben is a sand-blown plain, open four--1 square to as cruel north winds as ever ■ swept a countryside, and. surrounded i by damp marshland. When the Arctic [ cold of December reaches Germany, i there are few more desolate spots 111 i Europe than Ruhleben racecourse. And 1 its present inhabitants are still living in • horse-boxes or stuffy stable lofts. "The beaiitiful summer weather has ; come to nn abrupt end," said a plaintive postcard written on September 15, . "and we have again to chooso between . sandstorms outside and the dark lofts within ; " Until a few weeks ago the [ camp inmates could take refuge in an . American Y.M.C.A. hut. But that oasis in the desert of thoir misery mysteriously disappeared. The building was , biirut down. By whom and why it requires, I dare say, no very shrewd , guess to oay. The fire also consumed two flows, from which every man in the catnp now and then derived a cup of fresh milk. • . Who are the British in Ruhleben? They wear no medals for valour in the field, for with few exceptions they have been denied' the privilege of fighting for their country. Roughly, the camp is made up of students from the public schools and universities who went to Germany to complete their studies in chemistry, science, languages, or . music, or oh holiday tours; youths and men who had gone to health resorts; numbers of our best pioneers in commerce, trade, and industry, representing British firms of international renown; men connected with sport, such as professional golfers; instructors of various sorts, and a large number of merchant seiimen. Altogether they originally numbered about 4500.. Their dependants are riot so fortunate as the families of. combatant prisoners of war, who are in receipt of State aid. Against tho Britons still in enemj captivity Britain holds about 36.000 German civilians in the United Kingdom and the Dominions. On repeated occasions Germany has offered ail "all for all" exchange. That is, she is willing to surrender all British civilian prisoners if Britain releases all liers, All exchange on such a basis (ronghlj 10 to 1) is opposed by the British military authorities. The Huns now use practically all men up to 60 years of age for war work at home or in the trenches, and the British War Office is unwilling to present Hindenburg with substantially the strength of an army corps in. return for the strength o'i three regiments. It has been estimated, Unofficially, that actually aft "all for all" exchange would work out at only 5£ Germans to 1 Briton, and not 10 tc 1, owing to the notorious unwillingness of thousands of Germans to exchange Britisli internment for German repatriation. s In January, 1917, the British Government agreed to an exchange of all civilians over 45 (that being at the time the ago at which Germans became •exempt from military servicc), which meant ah exchange of 7000 Germans for 650 British, of about 10 to 1. Of this number of Germans 4200 were in Great Britain, and 1800 of tliem refused to go back, while cf tho British in Ruhleben one-sixth (or about 110) preferred to remain in Germany. Nearly a year has elapsed, but so far scarcely any meti over 45, or civilians adjudged hopeless invalids, have reached England. The shipping difficulty, as affected by U-boats, is said to be responsible for the interminable delay. Germany,' too, has created difficulties about the British ports at which she would magnanimously permit the Ruhlebeners to be landed. Boston was finally fixed upon > but meantime the hopes of the British affected rsmain heart-breakingly unfulfilled. In July, 1917, tho Anglo-German conference on prisoners at The Hague agreed to intern 20b0 civilians in Holland—-1600 Germans and 400 British. But this arrangement, too, is still 111 abeyance. It would be unjust to arraign the British authorities for neglecting the men of Ruhleben. Much has been done for them, though admittedly, they have done more for themselves. The British delegates at The Hague .made the utmost efforts lo obtain an nxchange of civilians upon eqnitx'Mr terms, but these endeavours) unfortunately, were futile. This thifd. an N an appropriate hour for reminding all concerned that bad lighting, worse heating, undor-nourishmcnl, sncl creeping paralysis of mind and body are doing their work remorselessly in the Prussian _ horse-pen. If British military considerations prevail, may there not be another and 3 tragic "Too Late" epitaph to he written?