This
department, however, did not seem to be in a position to issue
orders to the corps commanders commanding the army corps districts
of Germany, who had absolute control of the prison camps within
their districts. Colonel Friedrich, however, and his assistants
endeavoured to standardise the treatment of prisoners of war in
the different corps districts, and were able to exert a certain
amount of pressure on the corps commanders. They determined on
the general reprisals to be taken in connection with prisoners
of war. For instance, when some of the Germans, who had been
taken prisoners by the British and who were in England, were
sent to work in the harbour of Havre, the Germans retaliated
by sending about four times the number of British prisoners to
work at Libau in the part of Russia then occupied by the Germans.
But while the British permitted our Embassy in Paris to inspect
the prisoners of war at Havre, the Germans for months refused
to allow me permission to send anyone to inspect those British
prisoners at Libau.
Cases came to my attention where individual corps commanders
on their own initiative directed punitive measures against the
prisoners of war in their districts, on account of the rumours
of the bad treatment of German citizens in England.
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