The British Interned in Switzerland

by Henry Philip Picot

During the collation that followed, Sir Evelyn Grant Duff addressed the men in very happily chosen words, and read a message from His Majesty, which was received with cheers, and appreciated by both officers and men. Tired out, though contented, the men were finally led off by Swiss boy and girl scouts, and the sick were carried on stretchers or conveyed by carriages to their hotels and châlets, where most of them turned in to a well-earned sleep, to awake later to the life of routine and rest they were to live for the next eighteen months.

CHAPTER VII
THE SWISS SYSTEM OF ADMINISTRATION AND DISCIPLINE
RELATIVE TO THE INTERNED PRISONERS OF WAR

In determining the system of administration and discipline for Ps. of W. interned in Switzerland, the Swiss authorities had no precedent to follow beyond the experience gained in 1871, when a French army under General Bourbaki, in seeking an asylum on Swiss territory, was disarmed and interned on crossing the frontier. The conditions under which the internment was effected during the Great War of 1914-1918 were, however, wholly different; for whereas in 1871 the internment was imposed on Switzerland as a neutral State, in accordance with the rulings of international law, in 1915 it was voluntarily offered by the Swiss Government, and was accepted by the belligerent States in accordance with the terms of a Convention to which Switzerland, France, England, and Germany had given their adherence. There was also a further and important difference, viz., whereas in 1871 the Swiss Government was called upon to exercise authority over an armed body of fit men, in 1916 they were given the guardianship of Ps. of W., composed exclusively of the sick and wounded.

For the regulation of the system of internment, two alternatives presented themselves, both of which had their ardent partisans. In the one case, it was proposed that the interned Ps. of W. should be dealt with in the same way as any ordinary unit of the Swiss Army, i.e., they should be administered and controlled by the General Headquarter Staff at Berne; in the other, that they should be placed under the control of the Sanitary Service of the Army, a branch of that Service being specially created for that purpose. Those in favour of the former procedure pointed out that discipline would be difficult of maintenance, if left to the medical officer alone, and that the adoption of an entirely novel procedure, for which there was no precedent, would give rise to trouble; the argument adduced in favour of the latter method was, that as the Interned were either sick, wounded, or convalescent, they could only be dealt with satisfactorily by the Swiss Sanitary Service.

After much deliberation, the Swiss Government declared itself in favour of the creation of a special branch of the Sanitary Service, to which should be delegated the administrative, medical, and disciplinary control of the Interned, and orders to give effect to this decision were issued. This special branch was made independent of the G.H.Q. Staff, and was placed under the ægis of the Political Department of the Government, with Colonel Hauser as Chief Medical Officer of the Army (Médecin d'Armée), in control.

The organization of the new Service took the following form: a central administrative office, under Colonel Hauser, at Berne, divided into three sections to correspond to the three branches of the Interned—the Franco-Belgian, British, and German. Each section had its personnel, with a senior medical officer in charge, who was responsible for the administration and direction of his branch of Interned. The accounts were dealt with by officers detached from the Quartermaster-General's Department of the Army. Directly emanating from, and subordinate to, Colonel Hauser's Headquarters Service at Berne came the regional service of the Interned, with a "Directing Medical Officer," who was responsible for all the camps located within his region. The camps were staffed by medical officers, with the senior in command. As a rule, all these medical officers were of army rank; in some few cases civilian doctors were also employed, though in exceptional circumstances only.

Discipline in the camps was entrusted to the senior Swiss Medical Officer, the senior interned officer being made responsible to him for all officers, and the senior interned N.C.O. for all N.C.Os. and men. As regards discipline in general, the Interned were placed under the same rules and regulations as soldiers of the Swiss Army.

The system, as elaborated for Ps. of W., was calculated to maintain a complete severance between interned officers and men, the former being given no responsibility whatever in a disciplinary sense as regards the latter, i.e., they were not entrusted with any executive authority or any power of punishment. This system had many drawbacks, though possibly it might have proved workable if the officers had been quartered, as in Germany, quite apart from the men. In Switzerland this was not the case, for not only were all ranks located in the same place, but in many instances they were even quartered in the same hotels. Expedience, it might be thought, would have dictated the employment of the interned officer and the delegation to him of a modicum of authority, in order that he might collaborate with the responsible Swiss authorities. Yet, at the outset, nothing of the kind was contemplated, the Swiss preferring to deal with officers and men as distinct and separate entities, without connection one with the other. The motive underlying this policy may, I believe, be found in the fear entertained in Swiss military circles of the delegation of powers to interned officers of certain nationalities, whose arrogance had become a bye-word in Europe, and of whom these circles entertained lively misgivings. Any display of arrogance or harshness would have been extremely repugnant and particularly misplaced when applied to sick men, all of whom were either weakened by suffering or broken in body and nerve. Whatever disadvantages had been envisaged by the practical elimination of the interned officer as a coadjutor of the local Swiss Staff, compensation, it was believed, would be found in the freedom given to the Swiss Medical Officer in his dealings with the men, whose state of health formed so decisive a factor, whether regarded from the medical or the disciplinary point of view.

This system had already been applied to the French and Belgian Interned, of whom a considerable number were already in the country when the first contingent of British arrived in May, 1916. I had not had time to ascertain whether it was working well or otherwise, but I quickly realized that, whatever the result may have been as regards our Allies, it would never have any success with our officers or men, neither of whom would willingly accept a divorce in their relations, now that they had once again been happily reunited after the long interval of separation as Ps. of W. in Germany.