West Prussia, Pomerania,
Mecklenburg, and Oldenburg, a fifth or nearly a fifth have been
called up. In some Silesian and Rhenish-Westphalian districts,
however, not more than from a seventh to a tenth. If we allow for
all Germany a little less than one-sixth, we get 11,000,000.

What are the factors which enable Germany to call this number or a
little more than this number to the Colours? First, the
organisation of the women. I have seen them even in the forges of
Rhineland doing the work of strong men. "The finest women in the
world, these Rhinelanders," as one manager put it. "Just look at
that one lift that weight. Few men could do better." And his eyes
sparkled with enthusiasm.

Second, and of tremendous importance, are the huge numbers of
prisoners in Germany, and her sensible determination to make them
work. She has taken about one and two-third millions on the field
of battle. _There also happen to be in Germany nearly a million
other prisoners, buried alive, whose existence has apparently
escaped the notice of the outside world_. These are the Russian
civilians who were caught in the German trap when it snapped
suddenly tight in the summer of 1914. Before the war 2,000,000
Russians used to go to Germany at harvest time. The war began at
harvest time. The number of these men, which from my own
first-hand investigations in the remote country districts I
estimate at nearly a million, would have escaped my notice also,
had I not walked across Germany.

Another important factor in the labour problem in Germany is the
employment of the Poles. Not only are they employed on the land,
but great colonies of them have grown up in Dusseldorf and other
industrial centres. I saw an order instructing the military
commandants throughout Germany to warn the Poles, whose discontent
with the food conditions in Germany made them desire to return
home, that conditions in Poland were much worse. This, then, is an
official German admission that there is starvation in Poland, for
_much worse_ could mean nothing else. Germany is keeping Poland a
sealed book, although I admit that she occasionally takes tourists
to see the German-fostered university at Warsaw. Just before I
left Germany still another order was issued for the regulation of
neutral correspondents. Under no circumstances were they to be
allowed to talk with the natives in Poland. From unimpeachable
authority I learned that the Poles were intensely