The New York Times Current History: the European War, February, 1915Various
History
The New York Times Current History: the European War, February, 1915
Various
World War, 1914-1918
They were quartered in the hotel by the committee, and the physician was
called. One woman of the party begged him to take a ring, worth many
hundred dollars, and give her $10 for it, so that she might buy some
comforts for herself and daughter. Of course, the whole party was
immediately removed to a private sanatorium, where its members were
cared for, and where, little by little, they recovered their calm and
gathered up their scattered wits.
Very far from calm is a Swiss who has just returned from captivity in
the interior of Morocco on account of being mistaken for a German. The
day of the declaration of war the French authorities ordered him out of
his beautiful Moroccan home, giving him forty-eight hours to pack up.
His wife was visiting her mother here in Berne, and one can fancy her
state of mind on receiving a telegram to the effect that her husband
and babies, twins of 7 and a little fellow of a year and a half, were
ordered off, with the nurse, to parts unknown, as political prisoners.
In vain the man protested he was Swiss. His name was German, and he was
in a German firm; therefore he was a "canaille d'allemand"; so off they
went. At first they were packed on a little steamer whose capacity was
thirty people--there were 150 of them, and they cruised along the
Mediterranean for a night and a day.
At last they lay before Casa Blanca, and, on asking why they were not
landed, received the reply that the authorities must first of all clear
the pier, as the boatload of refugees landed there the day before had
been received with showers of stones and vile epithets from the mob,
whose hate of the Germans knew no bounds. When they finally landed they
were quartered in a riding school with 150 others, where they all slept
on the tanbark. They had coffee for breakfast, and during the three days
they were there had a thick soup each day for dinner, and nothing more.
One day it was bean soup, one day peas, and the third day lentils. They
were finally transported to the interior of Morocco and assigned to the
barracks of the Foreign Legion, the members of which are now fighting in
France, and here they passed strange, uncomfortable, heart-breaking
days.
Finally, when summoned to deliver up his money, the man said: "I shall
telegraph this outrage to Berne."
"What, are you Swiss?" was the officer's surprised question.
"Yes."
"Well, keep your money," said the officer; and a few days later Mr. X.,
through the efforts of our State Department and our Minister to France,
was released and joined his wife in Switzerland. This story was told me
by the agonized grandmother, whose tears flowed fast at the thought of
the hardships to which her daughter's babies had been exposed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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