The Treatment Of Prisoners Of War In England And Germany During The First Eight Months Of The War War College Series PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1918 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER X WOBKING CAMPS IN previous wars it was the custom to exchange prisoners of war, man for man, officer for officer, of equal grades or multiples of lesser grade for officers of higher rank. During the present war no such exchange has taken place. The prisoners so badly wounded that there was no possibility of their being further employed in military service, munition works, etc., have been exchanged. If we examine into the reasons for this deviation from the practice of previous wars we will find that it rests largely upon the economic problem involved in the countries at war. At the end of the first year of the war two factors entered largely into the decision of the German Government to use the prisoner of war as a workman. On account of the blockade by the British fleet the production of food for the German population and for the prisoner of war became a pressing and urgent problem. The use of munitions had far exceeded that which the military authorities had counted upon and the conversion of many industries to this use, with an attempt to maintain the national industries of the country, led to the demand of an increased amount of labor. The war had already drawn into the fighting ranks every able-bodied man between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. Germany has under arms nine millions of men. From an economic standpoint we must consider each man as a working machine for the conversion of energy. The amount of work that may be expected from such a machine can be fairly estimated from the amount of the intake of food in heat units. Each man in ordinary work uses up six hundred food units (calories) for the purpose of work. When this is calculated for nine millions of men in the army, it means that the remaining group, male...