Germany: Prisoners, including: Employment of German prisoners in Britain. Miss Julia...

FO 383/151

1916

Germany: Prisoners, including:

Employment of German prisoners in Britain.

Miss Julia B E Jacobitz, held in Winchester Gaol: letter to US Ambassador; at Bournemouth Quarter Sessions on 11 January 1916 bound over to comply with the Aliens Restriction Order.

Relief for dependants of interned British subjects.

British prisoners in Germany, including:

• Working camp at Halverde, near Münster: alleged forcible employment of prisoners in mines.
• Availability of motor car for official visits by James W Gerard, US Ambassador at Berlin, to working camps in Germany.
• Prisoners at Spreenhagen returned to Döberitz.
• Lieutenant C H J Chichester-Constable, 1st Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment, moved from camp at Gütersloh to Magdeburg, where allegedly undergoing rigorous imprisonment. US Ambassador asked to investigate.
• Visits to prisoners' camps in Germany compared to visits to those in Britain. Visits to be allowed without previous notice by members of US Embassy and members of Geneva Red Cross.
• Fatty foods required for British prisoners in Germany.
• Alleged forced labour in mines by prisoners at Dülmen: German allegation that prisoners employed on levelling and earth work, and not in the dynamite factory or any work connected with operations of war.
• Reports on prisoners' camps, including Kriegsgefangenenlazaret, Berlin; Officers' Camp at Fürstenberg i/Mecklenburg (with list of 15 names in docket no. 5458); Friedburg (officers); Giessen; Limburg; Mainz (officers); Niederzwehren; Soltau; Gütersloh (officers); Dyrötz; Ingolstadt, Bavaria; Güstrow i/Mecklenburg, Döberitz, Blankenburg (officers), Neisse (officers) and Gnadenfrei (officers).
• Proposed British and German Red Cross Conference, to be organised by the Swedish Red Cross Society in Stockholm. Printed proceedings of the November 1915 Conference attended by the German, Austrian, Hungarian and Russian Red Cross under the patronage of HRH Prince Charles of Sweden, President of the Swedish Red Cross. War Office opinion of such a conference being a poor substitute for work done by US Embassies.
• National Council of Young Men's Christian Associations: wish to forward donation for British prisoners in Germany.
• Assistance for British prisoners in Germany, including printed pamphlet 'Revised list of regimental funds and organisations for the benefit of British prisoners of war in Germany at present known to the Prisoners of War Help Committee'.
• British officers at Crefeld given permission to room together.
• Prisoners under arrest at Schneidemühl.
• Lieutenant Hubert Pelham Burn, prisoner at Mainz: enquiries as to his welfare.
• Private A Barker, interned at Sennelager.
• Gunner William Watts, sentenced to 15 months imprisonment; and Private Eric Jennings, sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for violently assaulting a superior. Both interned at Recklinghausen then transferred to Festungsgefängnis, Cologne (Köln); both unable to receive food parcels but allowed to receive letters and small parcels of woollen articles, stockings, handkerchiefs and soap.
• Despatch of curry powder for Indian prisoners in Germany.
• Employment of British prisoners in ammunition factories.
• Arthur James Higgens, aged 30, steward on Grimsby trawler Lobelia: examination by Government Committee on the Treatment by the Enemy of British Prisoners of War; account of his blindness caused by hardship and neglect at hands of German captors.
• Incident at Hachpfüffel estate involving Merseburg Camp internees on 28 July 1915, in which Private John Sullivan, Irish Guards, lost his life.
• German Government protest about inaccurate and defamatory 'Prisoners' Stories' published in Daily Mail of 7 and 9 September 1915, about alleged ill-treatment in Mülheim and Paderborn camps.
• Alleged trouble at Bischofswerda Camp, Saxony, reported by Captain S H Batty-Smith: US Ambassador asked to investigate; investigation by Mr Jackson of US Embassy; report of strained relations between commandant and British and Canadian officers based on misunderstandings.
• Corporal John Wilson, 8th Durham Light Infantry, imprisoned on charge of inciting to mutiny for refusing to do work connected with German war effort. Others similarly imprisoned. Brice Davidson, Canadian soldier, sentenced to 100 days solitary confinement for twice refusing to work in a German munitions factory. Foreign Office accusation of German Government violating Article 6 of the Hague Convention No.IV of 1907.
• Conditions in Wittenberg Camp: includes printed 'Camp enquiry sheet' giving very detailed statements of prisoners.
• Bureau de Secours aux prisonniers de guerre, British Section, Berne: printed balance sheet 1915.
• Printed 'Report on the visits to prison camps in Germany of representatives of the American Embassy in Berlin, and on the improvements in the conditions of the prisoners of war consequent on these visits' [January 1916].
• Trial of British prisoners at Schneidemühl: employment of competent interpreter.
• Prison camp canteen price list.
• Corporal Charles Shelton and Corporal J Orton, both of King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, sentenced to eight years imprisonment for assaulting a superior officer.
• The Morning Post publication of a letter from William Farren of Wimbledon stating that the Germans steal clothing intended for British prisoners. Refutation by US Ambassador in Berlin; publication by H W Gwynne, Editor of The Morning Post, of Ambassador's letter with a retraction.

Code 1218 Files 388-463 (to paper 23048).

Files 388-463 (to pp.23048).

Public Record(s)

Open Document, Open Description

Topics

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Internment

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Prisons