TREATMENT OF DEPORTEES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1754, 1 September 1917, Page 4

TREATMENT OF DEPORTEES.

in a list of new postal values issued by the German military authorities in the “Etappen Zone”-—East and West Flanders and the North of Hainan! —the Deutsche Tageszcitung mentions a “Post Card for civilian workers” (Zivilarbeiter-post-karte). A specimen of this postcard is in the possession of the “Bureau Doeumentaire Beige” at Havre. Its issue goes to show that the correspondence of Belgians who haye been deported and forced to work by the German military authorities is subjected to a special regime which resembles that of prisoners of war. A regulation for the postal service of workers published in the official German Gazette for the Etappen Zone on December 15th, 191 G, does in fact forbid deported workmen to inform their families of the district in which they are working. This prohibition can only be in order to prevent the names of these places becoming a written record of the military work which these deportees are obliged to do there. The special postcard is easily subjected to examination, owing to the mark Zivilarbeiterpostkarte, so that the authorities may be assured that regulations as to names of places are complied with.