The British Interned in Switzerland

by Henry Philip Picot

A small orchestra, with brass and stringed instruments, and which played twice a week, was started by Mr. Sutherland at the Foyer. This formed the nucleus of a band afterwards organized by the "S.B.O."

Mürren developed on similar lines. In one respect, however, it was more fortunate than Château d'Oex in having available a larger proportion of musicians, and was able, therefore, to create a very useful band, which added notably to the amenities of its social life. I remember well the astonishment of Colonel Hauser and his Staff on the occasion of a visit of inspection, when he was entertained by the officers, to find an orchestra of stringed instruments discoursing music during dinner, the procedure followed being identical with that of a Line Regiment at home.

I must not omit to mention that the Mürren foursome of Scottish dancers met with the same success in the Bernese Oberland as that of Château d'Oex in the Cantons of Vaud and Geneva. I recall with special pleasure the furore they created amongst the Bernese public on the occasion of a bazaar for the disposal of the work of the Interned (vide Chapter XIV).

Under the heading of "Pastimes," I may mention the publication by the Interned of a paper called the "B.I.M." (British Interned, Mürren). Major Charley started this paper in June, 1917, in connection with a printing press installed at Mürren, with the financial assistance of the "B.L.R.C.O." The management and editorship was undertaken by Lieut. Hubbs, 4th C.M.R., and later by Lieut. Evans. It concerned itself almost entirely with the doings of the Mürren garrison until January, 1918, when it was converted into a magazine for the Interned in general, and was then printed at Vevey, under the supervision of Captain Button, Oxford L.I. The paper appeared monthly until September, 1918, and bi-monthly up to October 29, 1918—its last issue. Major Charley, writing to me on the subject, states that, compared with the magazine published by French Interned, "it was rather a poor effort." It was, however, of interest to our men, and the effort was not wasted.

Thus were spent the leisure hours of the men in camp life in Switzerland.

CHAPTER XIV
BERNE IMPRESSIONS: ARTISTIC, MUSICAL, AND
SOCIAL UNDER WAR CONDITIONS

The nucleus proper of Berne (the old mediæval town) is situate on a promontory running between two arms of the River Aare, high above it, however, and connected on three sides, by long-spanned bridges, to the newer outlying portions of the town, where are to be found the more modern residential quarters. Along the southern side of the promontory, facing a splendid view of the Bernese Alps in the distance, with the river running below in the immediate foreground, stretch the handsome buildings of the Federal Palace and other Government offices, flanked on either side by the two most modern hotels, the Bellevue Palace and the Bernerhof, where, when not occupying private residences, members of the Diplomatic Corps and Bernese society congregate. Further along the promontory, beyond the Kirchenfeld Bridge, runs one of the most interesting old streets of Berne, a relic of the Middle Ages, the Rue des Gentilshommes, where many of the houses date back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and several, I believe, even to the fifteenth. This street, in times gone by, was the residential quarter of the old Bernese noblesse, and walking down now under the old arcades, past the Cathedral Square and Terrace, one can still see the dates and emblazoned arms indicating when such and such a house was occupied by the d'Erlachs, the de Wattenwyls, or some other illustrious family. Indeed, many delightful hours can be spent evoking, and peopling with old world silhouettes, the now deserted street, where only stone and beam remain to tell the tale. The very silence, perchance, induces one to note the care evinced in the preservation of every old house, sign, knocker, and quaint bell, evidence of the feeling in which the Bernese hold their departed glories and traditions. The same families still inhabit many of these old houses, but gradually the advantages offered by the more open and modern residential quarters are drawing them slowly, but surely, away.

In matters artistic, especially musical, Berne, though small in comparison, offers many of the advantages of larger capitals. It possesses a fine concert hall and a good theatre, visited, especially during the war, by the best European as well as Swiss talent. Owing to Switzerland having maintained her neutrality, and being situated geographically at the very centre of the main belligerent countries, and therefore easily accessible from these, she has become, par excellence, the focus of artistic as well as other propaganda from all quarters.

To begin with the most popular form of artistic propaganda, the cinemas presented films of the war in an ever increasing number, the Germans making great use of this means of impressing the public, but sometimes with a result the reverse of that which they had intended. In this connection the Moewe film, given all over Switzerland, and portraying the exploits of that pirate ship in sinking numbers of British and Allied vessels, may be mentioned. This was one long succession of views of merchantment and beautiful sailing vessels riding the waves, to be seen the next moment struck, and slowly disappearing beneath the surface. The most revolting part, however, of an altogether revolting film, was the brutality and delight evinced by the crew of the Moewe, who continued their sports and dancing in sight of their drowning victims. If the Germans hoped to impress the Swiss by their prowess and merciless inhumanity, or by showing them how easy a thing it was to accomplish the starvation of the Allies, and especially Great Britain, they utterly failed in their aim, for the public in general, mostly Swiss, was horrified at the sight of the destruction of so much constructive human endeavour, and, above all, at the brutality and disregard evinced towards the unfortunate crews of the doomed or sunken vessels. All over Switzerland the impression conveyed in the main by this film was one of disgust and horror, and comment bore more than all else on the entire absence of anything to indicate so much as the slightest endeavour to save human life. In a word, the Germans could not have chosen a subject more unfavourable to themselves, or done better propaganda work in favour of the Allies, than by exhibiting their Moewe film.