ARRIVAL IN SWITZERLAND OF THE FIRST CONTINGENT
OF BRITISH PRISONERS OF WAR FROM GERMANY
The first contingent of British prisoners of war was timed to arrive
across the German frontier into Switzerland, at Constance, on May 28,
1916. The transport arrangements, as in the case of all movements
connected with Repatriation or Internment in Switzerland, were, in the
case of these officers and men, controlled by Colonel Dr. Bohny, Chief
of the Swiss Military Red Cross Department, who, together with his able
and noble-minded wife, frequently journeyed on the trains and gave
personal supervision to the more serious cases.
Aware of the great interest in Great Britain in the question of the
Internment, and in order to ensure the fullest and most reliable reports
of the condition of the men and their reception in Switzerland reaching
the British public without delay, I suggested to Colonel Hauser the
advisability of issuing permits to the special correspondents of _The
Times_ and _Morning Post_ (who had made representations to me on the
subject), to enable them to board the train at Zürich, or at some place
near the frontier, if they so desired, and accompany it to its
destination. Colonel Hauser at first demurred to the proposal on the
plea that he had hitherto refused all permits to the Press, fearing the
introduction of a new precedent, but on my representing to him my hopes
and anticipations of a warm reception for our men on the part of the
population, and that it seemed eminently desirable to give the outside
public the benefit of reports by properly qualified press correspondents,
more especially as German Switzerland had been somewhat prejudiced in
the minds of that public by being credited with very pronounced
pro-German proclivities, he saw the point, and, withdrawing all
objections, agreed to the issue of the permits. Shortly afterwards
Colonel Bohny laughingly mentioned to me that his life had been made a
burden to him by applications from the Bernese for passes of admittance
to the railway station. "Special arrangements would," he said, "have to
be made at the station to prevent confusion." Never in his experience
had so many applications been made to meet a troop train; the good
Bernese seemed to have entirely lost their heads over the British!
On the morning of the 28th of May I left Berne for Zürich, where at 8
p.m. on the same day I went to the station to meet the troop train
arriving at 8.30 from Constance. The sight which presented itself to my
astonished gaze was an extraordinary one, and I believe unique in the
whole history of the transport of prisoners of war to Switzerland. The
approaches to the station were alive with a struggling mass of
townspeople, all anxious to find standing-room on the platform, which
was ringed round by a compact line of Swiss troops. It was with the
greatest difficulty that I and my party forced our way through this
seething mass to the line of soldiers, and thus gained admittance to the
platform, and it was entirely due to the forbearance of the townspeople,
who recognized my uniform, that we were enabled to do so. There we met
Sir Cecil Hertslet, H.M.'s Consul-General, the members of his Staff, and
the whole of the British community of Zürich.
The arrival of the train was heralded by distant cheers, which were
taken up by the assembled crowd, and, finally, there came the answering
cheers of our men, whose lungs, whatever otherwise was their bodily
condition, did not appear to have suffered from their long captivity in
Germany. Thus was removed all question as to the feelings of the
German-speaking Swiss towards British soldiers. Never for a moment had I
had any doubt of their being well received, but that the reception
should have attained such proportions and fervour was quite another
matter, and went far beyond anything which I could have possibly
foreseen.
There is no doubt that the achievements of the first hundred thousand of
our men in France and Belgium had made a strong appeal to a people whose
history is a long story of heroic struggle against great odds. It is
true that the prestige of the British had suffered in Swiss eyes in the
past. The suffrage of the whole population during the South African War
declared itself in favour of the Boers, who were thought to be the
victims of the ambition of the stronger Power. Like themselves, the
Boers were a small people in contact with more powerful and autocratic
neighbours, and instinctively Swiss sympathies went out to them. But we
had redeemed ourselves in their eyes since the war, and, as I read the
meaning of the manner in which they met our men, these same Swiss wished
to offer a tribute to the British people, as represented by the
survivors of that first heroic army.
Both officers and men were full of appreciation of the goodwill shown to
them from the moment of reaching the Swiss frontier. The fact that they
had at last left Germany seemed to them almost too good to be true. They
had refrained from giving way to any signs of demonstration on leaving
Constance, for fear of being turned back, and as they had no means of
knowing when they had quitted German territory, perfect silence was
maintained until they saw men waving to them and cheering from the
fields, by which they realized they were amongst friends, and had cast
off the dust of captivity. Then, at last, they felt able to give rein to
their pent-up feelings. So it had been all the way to Zürich, every
village along the route turning out to greet them as they passed by. I
could see that this outburst of emotion after the suppression and
antagonism of the years of captivity was having a very trying effect,
for all ranks looked dazed, and appeared only half conscious of what was
taking place around them. I mentally registered the fact that, to all
outward appearance, there could be but little difference between shell
shock and the emotional shock of pleasurable impressions so suddenly
experienced.
Similar scenes were enacted at Berne, though the hour was past midnight,
where again thousands of the townspeople had assembled. The Commandant
of the station had, fortunately, applied for a body of Swiss troops to
maintain order, and it was as well he had done so, for without them we
should have had trouble in getting the men to the refreshment rooms,
where a supper had been prepared through the thoughtful care of the
"B.L.R.C.O." Here they were met, in the absence of the Minister and Lady
Grant Duff, who had gone on to await their arrival at Château d'Oex, by
Lord and Lady Acton and the other members of our Legation, the Chiefs of
the Allied Missions with their Staffs, Colonel Hauser, Colonel Bohny,
and many Swiss officers. After supper and a rest, the weary-looking, but
refreshed and happy party, loaded with gifts, was re-entrained at about
3 a.m.
At this juncture I commenced to have misgivings as to how the men would
stand the long night journey still in front of them, and orders were
given for all blinds to be drawn, but sleep, as it proved, was out of
the question. At Fribourg (one hour's run) thousands had collected, who
were in a very enthusiastic mood, and made the most of the few minutes
at their disposal. During the longer run to Lausanne silence prevailed
in the carriages, but outside every station we could hear the cheers of
hundreds who had been waiting during the night just to see the train as
it ran past.
Some hope was expressed of a quiet time at Lausanne, where we were timed
to remain a quarter of an hour; but the Lausannois, and the large
British colony there, had no such thought in their minds, and a crowd of
some 8,000 testified to the feelings awakened. The presents with which
every one had provided themselves had to be passed over the heads of the
closely packed crowd to those fortunate enough to be nearest to the
carriages, for it was impossible for any except those near the train to
reach the men. Mr. Galland, H.M.'s Consul, met the train here, and
accompanied it to Château d'Oex.
At Montreux, which was reached at 7 a.m., the British and Swiss
communities had made admirable arrangements for the entertainment of
officers and men at the Hôtel Suisse, adjoining the railway station. We
were met on the platform by large numbers of Red Cross bearers and boy
scouts, who carried or assisted the cot cases from the train to the
hotel, while those able to walk marched through serried ranks of
sightseers, who broke through the cordon of gendarmes to load them with
flowers and gifts, rejoicing when allowed to give a hand or help the
men. The scene which presented itself was one likely to make a life-long
impression, for the terrace where the tables were spread bordered the
lake, disclosing the beautiful stretch of water from the Dent-du-Midi
along the mountains of Savoy towards Geneva—a view perhaps unparalleled
in Europe.
An eloquent and stirring address in French was given by the Prefect, the
sincerity of whose words, if not their meaning, went home to the men,
who cheered him to the echo. Mr. Cuenod, H.M.'s Consul, in a few and
simple words, made it clear to all that, in a country where every
able-bodied man had the privilege of bearing arms, the inhabitants would
know how to express, and to make felt, that sympathy which every brave
man should feel for another.
During the journey officers and men had asked me repeatedly whether
there was any truth in a report which had reached them, that as soon as
they were restored to health, they would be returned to Germany as
prisoners of war. When replying to the speech of the Prefect, I made it
quite clear to our men that they had seen the last of Germany. The next
move, when the time came, would be homewards, and all they had to do or
think about meanwhile was of getting well again, towards which end they
would be assisted by the advice and treatment of a skilled Swiss Medical
Staff. The painful attention with which all concerned listened to my
words, and the immense relief to which they gave rise, brought home to
me the heaviness which had been weighing on their spirits owing to the
uncertainty of their future. How the malicious rumour arose no one at
the time appeared to know, but it came out later that, in some of the
camps in Germany, the men had been informed by their guards that they
would return again to captivity as soon as they were fit. Some of the
men had argued that as Switzerland could only take a limited number of
prisoners of war, their places would be required by their other sick
comrades in Germany as soon as they themselves were well enough to
return. This they thought only fair, but the fact, nevertheless, weighed
heavily upon them.
Immediately after breakfast, the men for Leysin, all of whom were
supposed to be tuberculous, and amongst whom were some serious cases,
were despatched to that destination in charge of Swiss doctors; the
rest, for Château d'Oex, were divided into groups, and sent up in a
succession of trains by the mountain railway.
The hills were covered by mist during the first part of the run, but
this gradually cleared as the train mounted higher and higher, and the
last stage was made in an atmosphere of light and sun, which showed up
the springlike aspect of the valleys in all their beauty. The men were
now in the best of spirits at nearing their destination, and
vociferously returned the greetings of the peasants and others who had
collected at the small stations _en route_, amongst whom were many
French officers and soldiers quartered at Les Avants and elsewhere in
the valley. I was particularly pleased at seeing the latter, as rumours
had spread about Switzerland that French and British Ps. of W., owing to
ill-feeling, would have to be kept at a distance from each other. These
rumours emanated from a German source, and were evidently circulated
with the intention of creating friction. The story may be ranked as one
of the usual fabrications set rolling by our enemies, with a view to
discrediting the Allies in the eyes of the Swiss. In the sequel it was
entirely falsified, as French and British soldiers were often quartered
together to the entire satisfaction of both, whilst the relations of the
officers towards each other were often of a very intimate character.
A sound of great cheering, accompanied by the strains of "God save the
King," arose as the train steamed into the station at Château d'Oex,
which was profusely decorated with branches of fir and flowers. Grouped
on the platform were H.M.'s Minister and Lady Grant Duff, my wife and
daughter, the Swiss Municipal Council, the Rev. E. Dudley Lampen, and
the leading members of the British and Swiss community. A delightful
touch of old-world life and colour was imparted to the scene by hundreds
of school-children who, dressed in their national costumes, lined the
road near by, and distributed bunches of wild flowers to their new
friends. The removal of many battered remnants of humanity, as they were
lifted from the carriages, struck a pathetic note in the midst of much
that was otherwise joyous and exhilarating.
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.