Part 24

From Dr. Rotten:

THE RELATIVES OF MEN IN RUHLEBEN.

When in April of last year, after repeated applications by us, regular visits by the wives and children were at last permitted, the regulations were at first rather strict. The separation of husband and wife by a table was felt to be a special hardship. The visits taking a satisfactory course, however, this was altered in a few weeks, and since then visitors have been allowed in the camp itself and may walk around and converse freely with their relatives. Permission was, indeed, soon extended to mothers and sisters, and also fiancees of those interned, provided the engagement had taken place before internment. At the present time wives living in and around Berlin are allowed to visit once a month, the time permitted being nominally one hour, but this is fortunately not interpreted very strictly, so that in actual practice two hours are often allowed. Wives coming from a distance receive permission every three months; and it was for a long time a concern of these women and of their husbands--a concern shared by us--that these visits had to be made in a single period of two hours. Over and over again one found that the joy of reunion after so long a separation was so unnerving that they could scarcely unburden themselves on a single occasion of all the important matters reserved for discussion, and that only afterwards did they remember all that they had intended to say. We repeatedly made representations on this score in the proper quarter, appealing for a change in the regulation, and in December last we had the joy of obtaining permission for the wives from outside to stay in Berlin for a week and to make two visits of two hours during this period. In special cases a third visit might be allowed. All wives coming from a distance, at the same time as they receive the permit, are instructed by the Commandant to apply to us in the event of their needing any advice in respect of accommodation in Berlin. And so we are visited by many, whose reception in Berlin we either arrange for at their request in advance, or who, though acquainted with Berlin, yet come for information. They are so well satisfied with the conditions of their visits that at the present time there is no occasion to ask for further concessions.

GETTING MEN OUT OF RUHLEBEN.

Apart from our interest in the repatriation of the "over forty-fivers," our principal concern for Ruhleben consists for the present in finding work outside the camp for the younger prisoners, for, thanks to the recent decision of the Commandant, resulting from our repeated applications, such prisoners may obtain leave of absence provided they find situations. It is, of course, very difficult for those in the camp to seek situations, and we are therefore making special efforts to find opportunities for work, induce employers to engage an alien, and then conduct negotiations. There are among those desiring to exchange their forced idleness at Ruhleben for productive work many who are concerned to remain loyal British subjects.

The following quotation from Dr. Rotten refers to a specially interesting intercommunication:

We are delighted and thankful to see from your letter of January 31 that an unnamed gentleman in America has sent you the sum of L400 with instructions to assign half of it to our work for foreigners in Germany, and saying that the British Government at once gave their consent to the payment of the amount to us. It will be a great help to our work and will be conscientiously used for British subjects and for the subjects of nations allied with England. For a considerable time our work has been such that we can take advantage of the relief agencies of other countries for the assistance of Germans abroad, and for that reason can apply the means placed at our disposal for the support of foreigners in Germany only. So our help is now practically confined to "alien enemies," because the subjects of neutral States, should they be in need, can obtain other assistance, and it is our uppermost wish to relieve those who, but for us, would perhaps be utterly friendless. It is, moreover, a great satisfaction and encouragement to us that outside your and our spheres the community of our work is so strongly felt that people desire to further the efforts of the two societies simultaneously. The confidence so kindly felt in our efforts even abroad incites us to an ever increasing devotion to our work, to the undertaking of new tasks, and to the fulfilling of the old ones with more and more care in every detail.

THE SPECTROSCOPE STORY.

The spectroscope story is a particularly good example of the way reprisals of good work out. I take the following account from a leaflet signed W.R.H., and already known to many workers in the cause of fellowship.

A spectroscope, I believe, is an instrument which takes a ray of light and proceeds to spread it abroad. At all events, the description seems to suit in this case.

The spectroscope game was started by Bishop Bury. After his return from his visit to Ruhleben Camp he mentioned in a lecture that some of the science students interned there were very anxious to obtain the use of a spectroscope. The report of this lecture was read by one of the camp visitors of the Friends' Emergency Committee, who was a schoolmaster and a scientist. Moreover, he possessed a spectroscope. So he joined in the game and played his piece. But instead of trying to send the instrument to Germany, he wrote to St. Stephen's House and suggested that inquiries should be made as to whether any of the schools in the internment camps in England were in need of such an apparatus. If so, he would lend his, and ask our friends of the Berlin Committee for assisting alien enemies to try to do the same for Ruhleben. It was soon discovered that a group of men in Douglas Camp would welcome the spectroscope, which was at once sent them, and the corresponding message written to Berlin. It was not long before a reply was received telling us, as we expected, that every effort would be made, as usual, to carry out such a proposal for reciprocal service to prisoners.

A little later another player came into the game in the shape of the German War Office. (There seems to be a War Office player in every game that takes place in these days.) The German War Office was reluctant to permit valuable lenses to enter the internment camp without being quite sure first of all that the corresponding privilege had been allowed in England. Would we, therefore, obtain and forward a written certificate from the Commandant of the camp to say that the instrument had been allowed. This was soon done, and we next hear that the Berlin Committee, being unable to find a spectroscope themselves, had collected the sum of 900 marks for the purchase of one, and has asked permission for two of the leaders of the "University" of Ruhleben to be allowed out of camp to inspect instruments before purchase. This permission seems to have been readily granted, and Dr. Higgins and Mr. Chadwick met Dr. Rotten, the secretary of the Berlin Committee, in order to choose the most suitable apparatus. They finally decided upon one offered by Herr H., the head of an optical instrument firm.

At this point the game became specially interesting. Dr. Rotten was aware that Herr H.'s brother and his family had been closely in touch with the Emergency Committee, and had received considerable help in difficult and distressing circumstances. In recognition of the assistance given to his brother, he at once offered to lend to the camp, for the period of the war, a spectrometer and prisms valued together at 1,650 marks. The 900 marks collected were thus released to be used for other enterprises. Herr H. also sent a warm message offering to receive his brother's children, who had lost their mother during the war, and to welcome his brother as soon as he was free to cross to Germany. He also offered to provide him with anything he might desire to help him pass away the weary hours in camp. We learnt that the brother had been studying French, and now wish to take up Spanish, and he has therefore chosen a set of Spanish instruction books as what he would like best.

The game still continues. Other well-known scientific firms in Berlin have been approached and interested in an effort to provide material for scientific work in Ruhleben, and we have received a request from Dr. Higgins to follow up an effort he is making to provide similar assistance for some men at Knockaloe, about whom he has written to various University professors and business friends in England. Herr H. has also sent us a list of nine firms whose principals he is acquainted with, to see if they also will help in like manner.

A spectroscope I believe, is an instrument which takes a ray of light and proceeds to spread it abroad. A fine instrument!

W.R.H.

The ray of light is spread by reprisals of good. When the nephew of a friend of mine was let out from Ruhleben on a fortnight's leave, and received "overwhelming kindness" from his German hosts, what was it that so specially drew out their kindness? The fact that their own son, interned in this country, has been befriended here. (P. 105.)

A BABY CASE VISITOR.

Yet, in spite of all the efforts of sympathy, suffering, in camp and out, grows ever greater as the war continues. Here are two short stories of February, 1915, as reported to the Committee on this side. If, for a moment we can forget our passions, the sufferings of these, our fellows, must touch our hearts. Nearly four more years have passed and we know that greater loneliness and sorrow must have come to these hearts, as to so many more.

Our first call is in a horrid little street off Tottenham Court Road. Four knocks on a very shaky door brings Bertha, the wife of a German, a ships' cook, who has never been long enough on shore to become a naturalised Englishman. Bertha was a servant for many years before she married, and had collected many precious possessions, and she and Friedrich had a comfortable home with plenty of furniture and full of all the useless and hideous knicknack which apparently make so many people happy. Only a few remain, for nearly all have "had to go"--the term we know so well to mean that they are now in pawn, and that it will probably never be possible to redeem them. When first we visited them they were living in a basement room where rats made it difficult for them to sleep, and where, on the many unexpected calls I paid, I never once found a fire.

"We are not people wot feel the cold like some, Miss," they told me; "and the room's so small it likely wouldn't be 'ealthy to have a fire all day" so the "bit of washing" used to hang on a string for days and days before it dried, and they did their "bit of cooking" on a small gas ring. One day I called and found Friedrich still in bed; he was quite well, he said, "but we take turns to stay in bed, Miss, for it's warmer there and you don't seem to feel so hungry in bed as when you're up."

They were trying to save something out of a weekly 12s. 6d., after 6s. had been paid for rent, for the time when Bertha would have to go into hospital, and to buy some clothes that her little babe would need. Then you sent me, and let me tell her you would remember her when that time came, and you sent her flannel and wool to make the little clothes: after that a shilling a week could be spent on coals, and each time I went they sent you thanks and blessed you for your love.

We say good-bye here and go north to Camden Town where we call on Ludwig and Marie and their five children, the eldest of whom is six. He is Austrian and she is Irish, and they live in two rooms for which they pay 8s. 6d. a week. He was a waiter for thirteen years in a well known London restaurant, and his master has told him many times he would take him back if only the public or the newspapers would let him. But they won't. So Ludwig had nothing to do, and tells me he thinks he shall go out of his mind sitting in idleness in his miserable surroundings. Marie has been in hospital, too, and then Ludwig had plenty to do looking after his four little children alone for two weeks, and says it was the hardest work he ever had to do, and is glad his lot in life is not to be a woman!

The doctor in the hospital told Marie she must have plenty of milk every day, and we smiled together, for we knew their weekly income left no margin for milk for her--the children must be fed first. So you are helping, and Marie has her milk each day, and she and her babe are growing strong and well again.

The work done by the Friends' Emergency Committee, Dr. K. E. Markel and others on this side, and by Dr. Rotten, Siegmund Schulze, Prof. Stange and their fellows on the other, is indeed as "a clear flame of truth in a dark and haunted night."

PROF. STANGE.

To the great work of Prof. Stange, of Goettingen, I have once or twice alluded. He directs all the instruction given in the Goettingen camp, attends daily, gives lectures and superintends the library. He experienced the usual difficulties of any civilian who tries to practice Christianity in war-time. "One great German newspaper wrote with indignation that the prisoners in the Goettingen Camp had as good a time as if they were at a health resort." Doubtless this paper, like some others, contrasted the (rumoured) abominable treatment of German prisoners by their enemies with the too great indulgence shown to prisoners in Germany. But Prof. Stange is not abashed. "No internment camp," he writes, "can be compared with a 'holiday resort.' In spite of everything that may be done for the prisoners, internment is and remains always a very hard lot. In the Goettingen camp, too, many a prisoner needs not only the exertion of his whole strength, but help as well to make the endurance of his lot physically and spiritually possible." Stange is one of those who have learned to envisage the anxieties, the loneliness, the uncertainty, the ennui of the prisoner, and the terrible enervation of long months, and, alas, years of confinement. In this, as in so many circumstances of the war, it is the more sensitive and developed minds that suffer most, and are most easily destroyed, those minds that are indispensable in the building of any worthy future.

Prof. Stange quite frankly acknowledges to a war prejudice against the English. But when he found their great need of help, his prejudices melted away, and he soon engaged in helping them too with books classes, and other means of activity.