Part 23 (2/2)
From Mrs. K. Warmington: ”There are two little instances that stand out in my mind very clearly, and I think speak for themselves. The first relates to an English lady, her husband, and her son, with whom I made acquaintance at the English Consul's office. Later on I met the same lady at the American Consul's office; she was in deep distress, as her husband and son had been arrested and put into prison. Through the influence of an American that we met at an hotel, we got a permit to go and see a military commandant at the barracks to see if anything could be done for them. When we arrived, he treated us most courteously, and listened patiently to what we had to say. He rang a doctor up on the telephone, and, as far as we could make out, told the doctor to examine these men, and to p.r.o.nounce them ill. He then turned to us, and told us to return in the afternoon, when he would fetch them in his own motor-car, which he did. He also gave us a paper asking the civil authorities to do all they could to aid us to get away, shook hands, and wished us a safe journey.
”The other instance relates more to myself. We were at Nuremberg, Bavaria. We had permission to leave for Lindau, on the borders of Lake Constance, on our way to Romanshorn in Switzerland. The journey was a rather expensive one for me, as I had very little money, little more indeed than a cheque, which was valueless. A young German, who was shortly going into the Navy, whom I had known only about a month, hearing of my case came to me, and gave me 9 in English gold to enable me to travel more comfortably.
”My father was German, my mother English, and my husband English. I was in Germany in 1914 from July 26 to August 26. As my son was of military age, and I did not want him interned, I got what influence I could to get him away. He was finally released at the end of August, and we were allowed to go on to Switzerland.”
In the course of 1915 an English born woman returned to her husband in Munich. Her sister wrote to me of the extreme kindness with which this lady was received by her German friends. Many English wives of interned men have gone to Germany to their husband's families, and one hears the same account of extreme kindness. In Offenbach alone there are twenty English wives with forty English born children. _Special cla.s.ses have been opened for them._ After all, there are some German methods which are worthy of imitation. There seems at times a danger of our imitating what is _worst_ in our enemies, partly as a result of a desire to ignore what is better.
The letter which follows appeared in the _Times_ of September 2, 1914:
Sir,-Various rumours are finding their way into the German papers respecting the harsh treatment which certain Germans are said to have received in England. We British subjects who are being kindly and hospitably treated by Germans earnestly hope that these reports are, at any rate, much exaggerated.
It is well that the British public should understand the position of their fellow countrymen here. At the outbreak of the war British subjects in out-of-the-way places were given safe conducts to suitable centres, such as Baden-Baden, and there allowed to choose places of abode according to their tastes and means. Such restrictions as are put upon their movements are in their own interests. The authorities have exhorted the inhabitants publicly as well as by house to house visitations to treat foreigners with respect and courtesy, taking pride in thus proving their claim to a truly high standard of civilisation, and the people have responded n.o.bly to this appeal. Not only have hotel and pension-keepers done everything in their power to accommodate their visitors, at the most reduced prices, giving credit in many instances, but several cases have come to our notice in which Germans have housed and fed English women and children, who were perfect strangers to them, out of pure humanity and good feeling.
You, sir, can imagine how galling it must be to these people when they read in their papers of the very different treatment alleged to have been shown to Germans in England, and how painful and humiliating a position is thereby created for us here. England has. .h.i.therto enjoyed such a high reputation for chivalry and hospitality that tales to the contrary cause Germans a half incredulous shock. It it not too late for England to prove that she is living up to her old standard and that she refuses to be outdone in magnanimity towards the stranger within her gates....
(A paragraph follows as to the means by which money can be sent to Britons _via_ neutral countries.)
(Signed) DOROTHY ACTON (Lady).
F. BULLOCK-WEBSTER, M.A., Oxon, Resident Chaplain of Baden-Baden.
WM. MACINTOSH, Dr. Ph., Resident English Chaplain, Freiburg, i.B.
Baden-Baden, August 20, 1914.
Some account may be given of a party of 190 Englishwomen and 14 children who landed at Queenborough on September 22, 1914. (_Times_, September 23, 1914.) ”... With one accord they spoke in terms of praise, both of their treatment in Germany and of the kindness shown to them on the journey.... 'We have received kindness everywhere,' said one of a party from Dantzig. 'The Germans have been absolutely stunning to us.... I have not heard of one English person being molested anywhere in Germany.'” The Englishwomen did n.o.ble work on their part, especially for the fugitives from East Prussia. ”One Sunday we fed and clothed 290 who had come in without a rag to their backs.”
”I was arrested in Berlin as a Russian spy, because a bomb had been found in the house next to mine, and because a woman in the street said that she had seen me putting bombs in my hat-box, and that she had seen me with a Russian. I did, as a matter of fact, know a Russian student, but he was not the man she meant. I was taken to the police station and searched twice in the same day. They kept me in prison for two days and nights, giving me very bad food, and then they released me because they had no real evidence against me. When I came out, strangely enough it was German people who gave me hospitality until I was able to leave Berlin.”
Again, ”The German women are crazy over our Scottish troops and their kilts. Some of them used to go out and give the prisoners cigarettes, chocolates and flowers, but that has been forbidden now.”
A party of 178 who landed at Folkestone had varying stories to tell.
”Nothing could possibly be better than the treatment we have received,”
said one, ”everybody-official, police and public-treated us with the greatest kindness and the utmost courtesy.” ”The Germans are brutes, absolute brutes,” said another. Probably a third, who described both statements as exaggerations, came nearer the average truth. One of this same party described the kilts referred to above as causing matronly indignation in Berlin.[67]
In the _Times_ of September 24, 1914, appeared a letter on the subject of English exiles in Berlin:
I have read with interest and approval the statements of Englishwomen who have returned from Germany, as reported in the _Times_ to-day, with regard to the conduct of the German people.
As one of the party which arrived at Queensborough by the special boat, I wish publicly to express my warm appreciation not only of the considerate treatment which the people of Berlin showed towards English people there, but particularly to the splendid services rendered to us by the American Emba.s.sy, which made all the arrangements for our return, and by the Consular and munic.i.p.al authorities in Holland, who supplied us with food during our journey through that country.
May I add that I went about in Berlin as freely as I can now in London, and that at no time since the outbreak of the war have I seen a single British subject molested.
(Signed) L. TYRWHITT DRAKE.
Ladies' Imperial Club, September 23.
Here also is a fact that should give us pause. In a prisoner camp at Frankfurt a-Oder is a large building erected as a place of entertainment and general meeting hall. It is used by Russian prisoners, and _a considerable contribution towards its erection was collected by house-to-house visitation in Frankfurt._ To appreciate this fact at its true significance we must remember that Germany suffered from direct invasion by Russia immediately on the outbreak of the war, and that all the stories of atrocities and devastation that we heard of Belgium were also told of East Prussia.
”An old friend of our family,” a correspondent writes, ”has been residing in Bavaria over forty years. He is an artist, and married a Bavarian lady. His eldest son is a doctor in London, and two of his daughters are married in London, but the father has no difficulty in getting permits to paint in the Austrian and German mountains, and still finds a sale for his pictures in Germany.”
Forty years is, I know, a long time, but not by any means always sufficient to prevent persecution in the present war. On my writing table is a little ivory elephant. It was carved by a German who had been forty years in the service of one British firm. He was dismissed (a man over seventy) because of the war. This is not a unique case. ”N.S., clock-maker, who had been here thirty-nine years, and P.W., baker, fifty years. (He had two sons at the front, and 'the longer he thought the more the number of his English grandchildren grew.')” (See the Third Report of the Emergency Committee for these and other cases).
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