taken? The women struck me
as singularly quiet, and unhysterical, and I must add, fair-minded.
There were officials at times, they said, who were more humane, and
provided milk on the quiet. Did they make any protests, I asked. "At
first we did," they answered, "but we were always told 'You are
prisoners, and have nothing to say.'" The condition of the children
certainly suggested that they had suffered severely from malnutrition.
This may indeed have been unavoidable, and not the fault of any one. I
had a little further chat with one of the group, a very quiet woman,
whose rather drawn, set face showed that she had passed through hard
times. It was a little pathetic to me to note how sincerely she was
convinced of the superior virtues of her side. "In the earlier days of
the war when we had English prisoners," she said, "they were always well
fed, even though we went short. Our Commandant always made a point of
seeing that they were well provided for." There was in the quiet, rather
weary voice just a gentle shade of reproach, and that was all. I have
not the slightest doubt that the woman was perfectly sincere. I made
only the very obvious remark that it seemed to me there were good and
bad on both sides, and that some officials behaved well, and some not
well. It was a mistake to generalise and think all was ill on the other
side and all was well on one's own. She saw fairness in this view, I
think. There was a mutual approach, and a growing kindliness. I felt
then, and feel more strongly now, that kindness cannot grow out of
merely aggressive patriotism.

TURKEY.

It seems plain that in France, Germany and Great Britain there has been
an honest, if not always a very sympathetic attempt to treat prisoners
decently. But we hear little about the condition of prisoners elsewhere.
It is curious to note how, in spite of all the horror perpetrated
repeatedly by Turkish authorities in times, not of war, but of peace,
British feeling is never very indignant against the Turk; and how
prisoners of war are faring in Turkey we scarcely know. Not till July,
1917, does there seem to have been any definite application for the
inspection of Turkish internment camps. On July 18, 1917, an
announcement appeared in the Press to the effect that, in response to a
request from the British Government, the International Committee of the
Red Cross at Geneva had applied to the Turkish Government for the
necessary permission.

Yet here,