naturally refuse military obedience. The military authorities,
however, had taken the precaution to summon trusty troops
from the rural and Alpine regions, and so the leaders of the
strike saw their hopes falsified. When the news spread of the
ultimatum issued by the Swiss executive to end the strike at
once, otherwise the strike leaders would run the risk of being
put into prison, the general strike came to a natural end. Such
a strike has seldom broken down more wretchedly. The 48
signers of the " Olten Appeal " were accused of instigating the
strikers to mutiny, and so were handed over to the military
authorities for examination. By this accusation was meant any
appeal which directly or indirectly was made to the soldiers, with
the warning not to march against their own brothers, and not to
turn their weapons against the workmen, but, in case such a
command should be given, rather to refuse military obedience.
By far the greater number of the 48 signers were acquitted.
Only a few of the most prominent and the most compromised
leaders were kept, and received punishments ranging up to six
months' imprisonment. Here, as elsewhere, it became clear that
the greater part of the Swiss workmen never would approve a
united general strike with purely political aims.
Interned Prisoners. As early as Oct. 1914, a beginning was made with the dispatch of the evacuated civilians home to France, Germany, and Austria, passing through Switzerland. And up to March 5 1916 some 60,000 persons were conveyed back to France alone by the same route.
On Feb. 21 1916 an arrangement was finally made about the exchange of the severely wounded German and French prisoners who were to pass through Switzerland. After the consent of the Swiss Red Cross had been previously obtained, this duty was confided to it by a decree of the Swiss executive. Now began the foreign action of that institute which lasted for five long years. Constance and Lyons were fixed on as the exchange centres; the trains were to pass through Switzerland at night, and the railway carriages required were to be furnished by the State railways.
Before the actual transport took place, " selection committees " visited the various prisoners' camps, in order to inspect the severely wounded men, and to settle which should be included in the exchange. The Swiss Red Cross agreed to defray all the expenses for the food, etc., of these poor men, and their nurses etc., but not the railway fares.
Besides the medical men, male Red Cross nurses accompanied the trains, sometimes also soldier nurses, while women nurses from nearly every Swiss nursing home looked after the invalids. The journeys took place at longer or shorter intervals, but often there were lengthy breaks, due to the state of the war, and to difficulties that arose between the hostile states.
The Swiss people took a great and a very sympathetic share in these transport trains. People flocked from long distances to the railway stations merely to see the trains rush past, and had the feeling that thereby they had showed their sympathy with the unfortunate victims of the war. At the places where the trains halted, the joy was enormous. At some spots the trains had to stop because the people would block them by standing on the rails, and a huge quantity of loving gifts, for which room Was scarcely found, literally overflowed the Red Cross carriages.
The good example of France, Belgium, and Germany was fol- lowed in Nov. 1916 by Italy and Austria also. The exchange sta- tions here were Como-Monza and Feldkirch-Dornbirn, and many trains came through with Austrians, Bulgarians, Turks, Serbs, English, and Italians. Later on, when Austria resolved to re- patriate the numerous Italian consumptives, whose illness was still in the preliminary stages, special consumptive trains became also necessary. Imbecile soldiers were transported in great num- bers. Twice trains, with many such, came through, and no one could determine their names or their homes.
A most pitiful and moving spectacle was the sight of the trains filled with evacuated civilian travellers. Old men with snow- white hair, women of all ages, and children, even unweaned infants, were seen in these trains. These unfortunate persons were warmly welcomed and well fed, in the most hospitable fashion. It is a gloomy chapter in the history of the war.
The interned soldiers were mostly housed in the Alpine regions. This took place for various reasons. First of all, the high air was looked upon as a great factor in their convalescence, and then again they were isolated from the temptations of bigger places and towns, and, finally, in the tourist centres many hotels stood empty, all ready to receive this new kind of guest, and well fitted to shelter great bodies of interned.
No Swiss industry was so hard hit by the war in its very exis- tence as the Swiss tourist traffic, once so flourishing. According to the statisticians, milliards of francs were invested therein, and so, soon after the outbreak of the war, special measures of protec- tion (such as exemption from bankruptcy suits) and also acts of charity had to be taken. What wonder then that the Swiss authorities, by this action in favour of the interned, hoped to kill two birds with one stone, and appropriate these small profits to the stricken Industrie des Strangers ?
The daily sum paid for accommodation, etc., per head was originally four francs, later five francs, and even in 1921 an extra amount of one franc daily per head for 1918 was the subject of negotiation. (These sums were paid by the respective states con- cerned.) But no state, save defeated Germany, had agreed up to June 1921 to this extra expense. The food was simple and nourishing, and in some places it was more than good.
At the beginning of the period of internment the interned were given free postage for all letters sent to their native countries. And nothing too was charged for parcels sent thence to foreign countries. This humane arrangement was afterwards first re- stricted, and later on quite suppressed, as the war seemed to be never ending, and the cost to the Swiss post-office ran up to 2,000,000, and even more.
A great difficulty arose as to the employment of the interned. In some places they took to an industry which promised them certain profits. Such were the beautiful, and even most artistic works of art which were produced by simple and untrained sol- diers. They acted as joiners, mechanics, turners, wove baskets, made ropes, and nets, painted pictures, etc. In Thun, as early as 1916, a school of commerce was opened for the interned. The universities of Basle, Berne, Geneva, Lausanne, and Zurich allowed interned to matriculate as students. The Bernese Uni- versity Committee provided in 42 prisoners' camps outside Switzerland both teachers and students with money, food of various kinds, clothing and books. The interned were permitted to hold exhibitions of their products, and special committees were founded to promote the sale of the fruits of their labour. Now and then they received visits from high-placed countrymen (such as Gen. Pau, etc.). They looked after their social amusements themselves. One English committee even got together money for the visits of English women to their husbands interned in Switzerland. The English interned enjoyed the special sympathy of the Swiss. The number of prisoners interned in Switzerland was already in Aug. 1916, 18,936 11,823 French, 4,322 Ger- mans, 1,607 Belgians, 1,183 English, and one Austrian. These numbers later increased very much, and finally, when difficulties arose about food in Switzerland, it could not possibly receive an unrestricted number, and so after a certain time the interned were exchanged for others.
When the internment of wounded prisoners was resolved on in Switzerland this business was entrusted to the chief army medical officer, and the Swiss Red Cross. Practically, the Red Cross took charge only of the transport of the interned to and from Switzer- land, everything else being supplied by the army authorities. The interned had fewer invalids than the exchanged prisoners, and so required only ordinary trains with occasional carriages in which to lie down; but many persons seriously ill were sent home, and the Swiss Red Cross looked after all such cases.
After the Armistice the principal transport of the prisoners belonging to the Entente took its start. The sick and invalids were partly sent for in special " sanitary" trains, French, Eng- lish, American, and Italian, the nurses, etc., being supplied by the Swiss Red Cross. All these journeys passed off without any serious accidents, at least it never happened that any one was injured, though the trains went at express speed.
