BY LIEUT.-COLONEL H. P. PICOT, C.B.E. OFFICIER DE LA LÉGION D'HONNEUR LATE MILITARY ATTACHÉ H.M.'S LEGATION, BERNE, AND BRITISH OFFICER IN CHARGE OF THE INTERNED IN SWITZERLAND LONDON EDWARD ARNOLD 1919 All rights reserved TO MY WIFE AND DAUGHTER...

In giving the following pages to the public, I do so in the hope that a plain statement of the life and activities of British soldiers whilst interned in Switzerland may prove of interest to those at home who have shown in so many and diverse ways their concern for the welfare of their countrymen whilst Prisoners of War in Germany, and, later, during the period of their internment in Switzerland. I have specially dwelt upon the fruitful initiative taken by the Swiss Government in the negotiation

Driving off with my daughter and just a couple of portmanteaux to the London Chatham and Dover Railway, on July 16, 1914, en route for Thoune, our usual headquarters when contemplating a few weeks' wandering in Switzerland, I little thought of the events the Fates were weaving, and which, I suppose, have not left unaffected any individual destiny either in Europe or in the whole world. It was a bright and sunny morning, with a light cool breeze, upon which we congratulated ourselves in view of t

On my arrival in Berne, I found an unusual state of affairs. The Minister and members of his Staff were being besieged by thousands of British visitors in Switzerland clamouring to return to England, every one of whom had to be provided with a special permit or passport. The same thing was happening in a minor degree at the American Legation, where the American Minister and his Staff, like ourselves, had to face the question of difficulty of transport through France and across the Channel. There

In the early autumn of 1915 I came to London in connection with certain details of work in Switzerland. During this visit I had the pleasure of meeting Lord Kitchener for the first and, alas! for the last time. I had received orders to report myself to him at the War Office, and at the appointed hour, punctual to the minute, a member of his Staff informed me that he was ready to see me. Lord Kitchener received me very cordially, and plunging into business at once, said he wished to hear my views

On the outbreak of war, the attention of various Swiss charitable societies was at once concentrated on work connected with the provision of comforts, clothing, and necessaries for the large body of Swiss citizens who were withdrawn from civil employment to take their place in the Army. Amongst the best known of these societies were:— "La Croix Rouge," "La Société Suisse le Bien du Soldat," "Les Unions Chrétiennes des Jeunes Gens de la Suisse," "La Ligue Pro-Captivis," "La Société Suisse des Aum

During the winter of 1914-15, Allied and Swiss organizations were created at Berne for the despatch of food and clothing to prisoners of war in the Central Empires, the most important of which were the "Bureau de Secours aux Prisonniers de Guerre," and the "Comité Bernois." The former was founded by Monsieur Poinsard and Madame Pageot (wife of the French Military Attaché), in the interests of French prisoners; the latter by Madame Valentin (a Swiss lady), under the ægis of the Swiss Red Cross So

The first contingent of British prisoners of war was timed to arrive across the German frontier into Switzerland, at Constance, on May 28, 1916. The transport arrangements, as in the case of all movements connected with Repatriation or Internment in Switzerland, were, in the case of these officers and men, controlled by Colonel Dr. Bohny, Chief of the Swiss Military Red Cross Department, who, together with his able and noble-minded wife, frequently journeyed on the trains and gave personal super

In determining the system of administration and discipline for Ps. of W. interned in Switzerland, the Swiss authorities had no precedent to follow beyond the experience gained in 1871, when a French army under General Bourbaki, in seeking an asylum on Swiss territory, was disarmed and interned on crossing the frontier. The conditions under which the internment was effected during the Great War of 1914-1918 were, however, wholly different; for whereas in 1871 the internment was imposed on Switzer

As already stated in a previous chapter, in the first stages of the negotiations of 1915 for the internment of Ps. of W. attention had been directed solely to the hospitalization in Switzerland of one category of prisoners, viz., that of the tuberculous; but very shortly, under the pressure of public opinion, further attention had been drawn to the advisability of extending the principle to other categories, with a view to the inclusion of disabilities of a very varying nature. The discussions w

Our men had not long been settled at Château d'Oex when they were inspected by Colonel Hauser, who mentioned to me his surprise at finding an unusually high percentage in need of surgical treatment, the percentage being much higher than in the case of the French, Belgian, or German Interned. He appeared to be satisfied at the time with the adequacy of the medical and surgical arrangements at our disposal, but expressed some concern at a feeling, common to both officers and men, that their surgic

The employment of the Interned became at an early date the object of much solicitude on the part of the Swiss Government and the Swiss public, and it was soon recognized that the best tonic for repairing the ravages caused by sickness, wounds, and a long captivity, was to be found in the restoration of the soldier to a state of activity approximating to the normal, by bringing him into touch with the ordinary conditions of civil life. For this purpose it was necessary to find work, study, or occ

The facilities afforded by the Swiss to the French, Belgian, and German Interned, as explained in the foregoing chapter, could not, it will be readily understood, be made applicable in the same degree to the British Interned, who, unlike their Allies and enemies, were strangers in a foreign land, ignorant of the languages spoken by the people, and, further, apart in race and habits. There was, moreover, this essential difference: whereas the French and Germans were largely drawn from the industr

Before mentioning the arrangements made for the British Interned, I should like to give a short sketch of the steps taken by the Churches in Switzerland, and of Swiss regard for the spiritual welfare of the Allied and German Interned, before the advent of the British. I take the Roman Catholics first, as most of the Allied Interned were of that persuasion. The "Mission Catholique," founded by Mgr. Bovet to give moral aid to Ps. of W., engaged itself from the very first to provide, under the dire

As soon as the first contingent of officers and men were installed at Château d'Oex, there arose the need of some place where the men could meet in their leisure hours instead of finding attraction in the local cafés, and in July, 1916, the Rev. A. Sutherland, in association with a lady interested in the scheme, succeeded in finding suitable quarters where the men might foregather, much to my own and Colonel G. Vansittart's ("S.B.O.") satisfaction. Within a few days, with the assistance of the "

The nucleus proper of Berne (the old mediæval town) is situate on a promontory running between two arms of the River Aare, high above it, however, and connected on three sides, by long-spanned bridges, to the newer outlying portions of the town, where are to be found the more modern residential quarters. Along the southern side of the promontory, facing a splendid view of the Bernese Alps in the distance, with the river running below in the immediate foreground, stretch the handsome buildings of