The Franco-German agreement, which, being the first exhaustive document
of its kind in this war, will serve as a model for those that follow,
provides that all privates and noncommissioned officers who have been
prisoners in France and Germany for eighteen months shall be exchanged,
man for man and rank for rank, in the order of priority of capture.
Officers over 48 years of age are to be released, and certain other
classes of officers are to be interned in Switzerland, while the
French and Belgian interned soldiers already in Switzerland are to
be released. It is estimated that there are 150,000 prisoners on each
side who will be exchanged under the Franco-German agreement alone, and
as transportation difficulties will prevent the moving of more than
10,000 a month each way, the repatriation of the 300,000 or more who
have been in captivity since 1914 will require at least fifteen months.
The interned civilians, it is stated, should all be back in their own
countries in six months. The release terms are to go on applying to
later prisoners as soon as their captivity amounts to eighteen months.
[Illustration: Inhabitants of Picardy who were forced to leave their
homes when the German advance began
(© _International Film Service_)]
[Illustration: A town in France practically wiped out in the German
offensive which began on March 21, 1918. The road was cleared
subsequently for the passage of British troops
(_British Official Photo from Underwood_)]
The status of citizens of occupied territory is profoundly modified
by the provisions of the agreement, which expressly stipulate that
deportations shall cease. Both sides bind themselves not to use
released soldiers or civilians in war work. The validity of Germany's
promise on this point was a theme of bitter comment in England when the
terms of the French agreement first became known.