OBSERVATIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
EMPLOYMENT OF PRISONERS. PARCELS. MEN OF MONS
When I first became aware that there was a probability of my being exchanged I set to work to gather what information I could.
I came into contact with a good many private soldiers, and in conversation with them I became deeply interested in the commercial value of prisoners of war; for it appeared to me clearly evident that in a country where there were over a million prisoners, possibilities were unlimited; and the German authorities appeared, with businesslike organisation, to be taking the fullest advantage of their opportunities.
The unprecedented scale upon which prisoners have been made during the present war has opened up a problem unique in the annals of history. The more prisoners you take the more mouths you have to feed; and the greater becomes the man power necessary for their supervision.
With the ever-increasing number of prisoners the problem grows in enormity, and can either develop into embarrassing proportions, or by scientific handling can be turned to advantage.
In England for over two years we have herded our prisoners behind bayonets and barbed wire. The financial resources of the country have been poured out to feed idle hands, supplying food without repayment, at a time when the food and labour problems of the nation are becoming its most serious problems.
For over two years we have allowed the question to slide into obscurity, until to-day in our own country the only part of the community which has no anxiety or participation in the problem of living and daily sustenance is the German prisoner in our midst; and yet to-day a large part of what should be our fighting power is kept from the firing-line to supply the needs of the nation and feed the mouths of our idle prisoners.
It has never occurred to us, or if it has we have ignored it, that without contravening the law of nations, prisoners can be made to feed themselves, and be employed in any industry, provided they are not put to work connected with the war.
It has never occurred to us that we have in our midst many of the trade secrets of a country which for generations has been our rival in commerce.