THE PERIL OF THE BRITISH PRISONERS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 47, 18 June 1915, Page 6

THE PERIL OF THE BRITISH PRISONERS.

KAISER'S LIFE IX Fi.EDGE FOR THEIR SAFETY.

By AUSTIN HARRISON (Editor of " The English Review.")

(From the "Sunday Pictorial. )

Opinion lia.s always gushed in this country about the mediaeval Kaiser. With our characteristic want of logic we still seem to forget that a "shining' Prince in Peace is likely to be a "frightful" Prince in War, though, to do Lis Majesty justice, he must be admitted to have done his best to keep up the mediaeval reputation. I'or whatever thev are, the Germans are logical. The piratical sinking of the I'alalia reveals the Imperial mediaevalism in its true instance. Do not let us imagine that this sea warfare of the Germans is not to the Kaiser's liking. It is. It is part of the Hohenzollorn canvas. His sailors sink neutral ships at sight bywill of their Kaiser. They jeer at drowning sailors by order of the King of Prussia. They are pirates because they have been instructed to be pirates, and the badge they wear is the Kaiser s. Such is' the German method. We know i'. We have no excuse to plead ignorance. The Germans are fighting with the ruthlessness of the days of the Tliirtv Years' War. The question js • What does civilisation intend to do? It is the business of the Allies to drive the Germans out of France and Belgium. and so defeat them that the German people have to accept the conditions of Europe. We have got to win to that end, no matter at what costs, and confidently we may assert that we shall. Mut in the process the sacrifice will be terrible.

Some months ago the Chancellor i-ai.l that the Germans would arm every living thing in the country if ever they were invaded. It is what we have to expect. This war cannot end with th? ordinary treaties and protocols, ft is a racial struggle, a war of annihilation. The Germans will stop at nothing. I fully believe they will go down fighting as no people recorded in history. My soul sickens when T think of the lot of her unhappy prisoners. We laugh'hero merrily over the notion of the German people starving, but we do not pause to think what the Huns would if-) if they reallv were starving and what would he the fate of their prisoners. Yet before the end comes the Germans may really be reduced to r-tar-vation rations; the whole nation may he lighting on German soil against the Allies; possibly in two months' time a situation may arise calculated to freeze the blood with horror.

We may be sure of this : the prisoners in Germany will suffer first, and ours in particular. If the Germans starve, they will let the prisoners starve first. Always it will be our men who will suffer the most. Pushed within their own frontiers, fighting for life, the Germans would not hesitate to let their prisoners die by the thousands. Tf it ever comes to desperate measures, they would not hesitate to "ease their responsibilities." They must have something like 700,000 prisoners by now. No nation at war ever had so many As time goes on these prisoners may become a source of the greatest perplexity to the military. The Kaiser who orders his sailors to jeer at drowning neutrals would have no qualms about prisoners of war. Nothing would be easier than to start a plague in the camps. Tn the deathgrapple, the mediaeval Kaiser will at least be mediaeval.

What cnn wo do? This. We ought at once through the Americans to institute a strict inquiry into the treatment of English prisoners, but, first and foremost, Mr. Asquith should solemnly proclaim our attitude to tho world. He should hold the Kaiser and the reigning Princes, the Commanding Generals and the leading officials, the professors and the leaders of all political parties responsible, and he should pronounce the penalty. That penalty .should be death.

No doubt people will think I exaggerate. [ wish I thought so. But I have Uved long enough with the Germans to understand their character and aims, and 1 know how necessary it is to treat I hem as they treat others. It is the only way they recognise or understand.

1 cm see terrible things happening this summer. 1 can see the German*, mad with hatred, venting their rage upon their captives . Their whole fury will !.>• directed against us, against the unfortunate Englishman tliev hold captive. It is not a responsibility we can afford to neglect. Thousands of Germans are walking about London, vet the Admiralstates that it suspects Gorman of inciting English workmen to strike. Tf that is so, why do the authorities not make a razzia and clear all made aliens away? I mention this because it shows how little apaprently our authorities realise the | German fighting attitude. But the public may be gut to realise its responsiblitv towards the soldiers, and on this question it should assert itself. 1 am not writing sensationally. I l'eel most seriously about it. We ought to take the matter up as quickly as possible. But it must lie taken up —now, firmly and officially. Our victory would lie shrouded with j grief and shame if, trusting to our policy of wait and see, we learnt that '■ somehow the English prisoners had all died." Such a crime is quite possible with the Germans. There is only argument they accept —force: we must bold them at their own valuation, as the Huns: and we must say to them now in J the Mother of Parliaments: "Beware!"' The mediaeval Kaiser must be given to understand that humanity holds his | head in pledge for the captives in (lerninnv. Before tho world Mr. Asquii'i I should proclaim him responsible, with I rdl his Staff and Ministers. The Germans should know that their Emperor will be arraigned at the bar of civilisaI t'on for murder and niracv. and that the penalty for liiai and all his federate Princes will be death.