The Better Germany in War Time: Being Some Facts Towards Fellowship — John Shaqi
The Better Germany in War Time: Being Some Facts Towards FellowshipPicton, Harold W. (Harold Williams)
History
The Better Germany in War Time: Being Some Facts Towards Fellowship
Picton, Harold W. (Harold Williams)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Hospitals, charities, etc.; World War, 1914-1918 -- Prisoners and prisons, German
The interest taken by prominent Germans in the welfare of prisoners of
war is little recognised in this country. The Berlin Committee (of which
more will be said later) has received considerable support. At the end
of June, 1916, a meeting in support of its work was held at the house of
Prince Lichnowsky, former Ambassador in London, who returned specially
from the front to preside. The Bishop of Winchester, writing in the
_Times_, tells us that many notable men and women were present, and that
at the meeting a collection of 8,000 marks (about £400) was made.
COLOGNE.
Mr. Michelson visited in April, 1915, the three Cologne hospitals in
which wounded British prisoners are lying. He reports as follows:
These institutions are so typical of large, modern, well ordered
hospitals that little need be said of their employment or
management. They are provided with all the machinery and
paraphernalia usual to surgical work on a large scale, contain
all standard and necessary conveniences and fittings, afford to
patients a maximum of protection in the matter of sanitation,
quiet and relief from preventable irritation, and are conducted
in a thoroughly scientific, professional and humane way.
The names of the 49 wounded British prisoners are hereunto
annexed. I personally spoke to every one of these men, and with
many of them I conversed privately and without being overheard.
With but one exception no English-speaking British prisoner had
any complaint to make, and a number of the British prisoners
eagerly expressed to me their appreciation for the care and
attention given them.
The physical condition of the Indians is particularly good. Only
21 deaths have occurred among the 1,000 wounded cared for in
hospital No. VI. since the war began, and the death rate in the
other two hospitals is correspondingly low. The physicians in
charge consider the rate to be somewhat remarkable in view of
the many grave injuries treated.
In closing I may say that there is no discrimination or
segregation among the patients and that certain French patients
with whom I spoke expressed, likewise, their appreciation for
the care and attention given them.
CREFELD.
At Crefeld Mr. Michelson visited the camp for interned officers. Of
these interned 137 were British. The general statements of the
Commandant “were afterwards independently confirmed by the one interned
British medical officer, Captain Benjamin Johnson, who said that as a
physician he had no complaints to make or improvements to suggest. He
did, however, complain on the score of being held prisoner, but the
Commandant and the German medical officer, and I with them, feel that
the presence of a British medical officer in the barracks is desirable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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