“=It is not a fair fight. Germany is fighting foully; she is defying
not only the rules of war, but the rules of humanity.=”--_Mr.
Richard Harding Davis_, the great American author.
Treatment of English Travellers.
The treatment meted out to English travellers and residents in Germany
at the time of the outbreak of the war was equally in keeping with the
modern culture of the nation. British subjects arriving in England were
loud in their protest of the manner in which they were treated, and even
British, French, and Russian Consuls were treated like criminals. In
regard to the latter, a mock formality of presenting the Consuls with
passports was gone through before their departure, but, provided with
these so-called guarantees of safe conduct, they were subjected to the
grossest insults on the way, the women being the chief object of the
mob’s fury. Insulting inscriptions were scribbled on the walls of their
compartments, and they were the objects of very hostile demonstrations.
At every station brave soldiers of the Kaiser presented their revolvers
at the heads of the travellers, came up to the carriage windows, jeered
at the occupants, and often threw rubbish into the compartments.
Mr. Drummond Hay, the British Consul at Dantzig, the French Consul, M.
Michel, and the Russian Consul were, with their families, turned out
from their consulates at an hour’s notice. They were told that they
would be taken to the Russian frontier, but in reality they were
conveyed to Bentheim, near the Dutch frontier, _via_ Stettin, a journey
which occupied three days. During the journey they were not given nor
allowed to buy any food, and when the train reached Bentheim the
travellers were curtly told to get out, and the Consuls were immediately
separated from their families. The women and children were housed in a
mean tavern under strict military guard, and the men, together with Mr.
Drummond Hay’s sixteen-year-old son, were taken to the local prison.
They were all put into one small cell, which they found already tenanted
by M. Vassel, an attaché of the French Consulate at Bentheim, who had
been imprisoned some days previously. M. Vassel had been arrested when
looking after the luggage of the French Consul at Bentheim, who had just
left for Holland.
In prison the Consuls were treated as though they belonged to the worst
class of criminals. They were obliged to sleep on the floor, without
covering of any kind, and with only a few wisps of straw between them
and the cold stones, and their only food was the black bread which is
served out to the ordinary convicts.
Having fallen ill on the journey, M. Michel asked to be allowed to see a
doctor, but, in lieu of medical advice, he was given a very strong dose
of castor oil, which made him very much worse. The conditions under
which these four men and a boy lived cannot be described. The gaolers
would not allow them nor anyone else to clean out the cell. Night and
day the unfortunate prisoners were herded together. Their only
recreation, a daily walk of half an hour’s duration, was taken in
company with the convicts.
Ten days after leaving Dantzig Mr. Drummond Hay was set free, but the
others were detained amid the awful surroundings which have been
described.
It was ascertained that there were forty-eight other foreigners--among
them fifteen Frenchmen--who are being kept in the town of Bentheim under
the strictest military observation.
The state of affairs in Dantzig when the Consuls left was terrible; many
people were being shot daily, often upon the very scantiest suspicion.
If the Germans treated responsible Government officials in the manner
described above, how much worse was the case of unfortunate girls and
women stranded alone in Germany. In many cases English governesses in
German families were cast adrift, to starve and endure the insults of
the savage enemy. Hundreds of English men and women, many of them
tourists, were thrown into prison without any trial, and suffered the
same indignities as did our Consul at Dantzig.
Englishwoman’s Experience.
A well-authenticated story was related by the headmistress of a London
elementary school, who was in Switzerland when the war broke out and who
returned to England prostrate with shock at the horror of scenes she
witnessed while passing through Germany. The train, she said, was
packed; all windows were closed, and the blinds drawn, and the
passengers were forbidden on peril of their lives to raise them.
Glimpses of troop trains were caught at intervals, and to allow these to
pass frequent stops were made. The pace was slow, and the crowded,
unventilated carriages became unendurably close. In the same compartment
as the lady in question were two English women, whom she learned to be
teachers in the provinces. One of these became ill, and at last, when
the train came to a stop at a countryside place between stations--there
was no means of locating it--her friend helped the sick girl to alight
in order to breathe some fresh air. Instantly bullets hailed upon them,
and both were shot dead. Their travelling companions dared make no
attempt to recover the bodies, and when the train passed on they were
left beside the line.
Two teachers of another London girls’ school state that a woman
travelling with them through Germany was shot for failing to show her
passport, and her body thrown out upon the line. Other ladies in the
same train stated that they had been stripped by German officers on the
pretence of searching them.
[Illustration: A MALINES RED-CROSS WARD WHICH WAS SHELLED BY THE
GERMANS.
_Photo, Sport and General._
_Face p. 109._]