Catalogue description Germany: Prisoners, including: Statements taken by the German authorities from British...

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Details of FO 383/295
Reference: FO 383/295
Description:

Germany: Prisoners, including:

Statements taken by the German authorities from British prisoners at Constance, Switzerland, regarding their treatment while interned in Germany.

Paul Kramer and Georg Karlson, interned at Knockaloe Camp, Isle of Man: proposal for their repatriation as merchant seamen under 17 years of age, with copies of their birth certificates (in docket no.35631).

Proposal by the War Office for raising the age limit for the repatriation of German civilians to 60 years; rejection of the proposal by the Home Office and the Foreign Office.

Supply of food to prisoners interned in the UK: minutes of two conferences held at the War Office on 8 and 14 February 1917.

Imprisonment of Captain McGuire Bate and Lieutenant Arnold Lamble at Spandau Prison, including:

  • Decision by the War Cabinet for reprisals to be taken against two German officers.
  • Mrs G McGuire Bate: letter stating that her husband and Lieutenant Lamble were not receiving bread parcels.
  • Captain Hans von Bauchhaupt and Naval Lieutenant Kurt Gebeschus: selection for reprisals, and transfer to Bodmin Prison.
  • Lieutenant Lamble: copy of a letter addressed to his mother from Spandau Prison, and extracts from other letters.
  • Claim by the German authorities that Captain Bate and Lieutenant Lamble were in possession of soft-nosed ammunition.
  • Imprisonment of Major G S Higginson and Major Bell in Spandau Prison as counter-reprisals by the German authorities, and demand for the re-trial of Sergeant Major Petzel (or Pätzel).
  • Visit by Dr van Vredenburch to Spandau Prison.
  • Naval Lieutenant Kurt Gebeschus: copy of a letter to his father from Bodmin Prison.
  • Major G S Higginson: letters to his sisters, Mrs Nesta Skrine and Miss Louisa Higginson, from Spandau Prison.
  • Transfer by the British authorities of Major Ludwig Schrott and Major Rudolf Lorenz Bauer to Bodmin Prison, in response to German counter-reprisals.
  • Lieutenant Lamble: extracts from letters to his father, Mr Elias Lamble.
  • Major Ludwig Schrott and Major Rudolf Bauer: copies of letters addressed to the Swiss Legation in London.
  • Captain McGuire Bate and Lieutenant Lamble: information that they had been charged at a court of enquiry.
  • Opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown on the case of Sergeant Fritz Petzel (or Pätzel), upholding the sentence passed on him for carrying soft-nosed (dum-dum) bullets.
  • Transmission to the German Government of details of the circumstances of Lieutenant Lamble's departure from Africa, prior to his arrest on board SS Appam.
  • Return of the British and German officers from Spandau and Bodmin Prisons to their respective internment camps; issue of back pay due to the four German officers.
  • Sergeant Fritz Petzel (or Pätzel): remittance of the remainder of his sentence for penal servitude, and transfer to Pattishall Camp.
  • Private Hubert Heal of HMS Rinaldo: affidavit concerning the contents of Lieutenant Lamble's luggage on board SS Appam.

Lieutenant T H K Allsop, interned at Friedberg: request for further efforts to be made to obtain his transfer to Switzerland, following his rejection by the Swiss Commission at Constance.

Internment of British merchant seamen and officers in Germany, including:

  • Recommendation that they should be accorded civilian status.
  • Question of the transfer of four crew members of SS Eskimo to Switzerland; subsequent request for their repatriation as civilians.
  • Report of a visit of inspection to Brandenburg Camp and Lazaret [hospital].
  • Reports by former Danish and American prisoners from Brandenburg Camp about the ill-treatment of British prisoners in the camp, with a newspaper report from the Gazette de Hollande of 12 March 1917 containing an interview with a Dutch seaman.
  • Proposal for the reciprocal exchange of British and German merchant seamen.
  • Deposition of Mr Martin Connolly, an American seaman, regarding his capture on SS Georgic and internment at Brandenburg Camp.
  • Request for a list to be provided of British merchant seamen and officers interned at Brandenburg Camp.
  • Captain Adam Stolberg: repatriation from Australia on health grounds.
  • Total numbers of British merchant seamen interned in Germany.
  • Request by the German Government for the release of Max Dähling and six other ships' boys.
  • Draft memorandum to the German Government protesting about the treatment of British merchant seamen as combatants; subsequent amendments to the memorandum.
  • Total numbers of German merchant seamen held in the UK, organised by age and place of internment (details in docket no.106986).
  • Captain R A Knight, interned at Beeskow Camp: copy of a letter on conditions in the camp.
  • Captain J Clark and Captain James Blaikie, interned at Augustabad Camp: copies of letters requesting financial assistance following the stoppage of payments to officers of the Merchant Service.
  • Captain Buyers and Chief Engineer Baser of SS Yarrowdale: delay in their repatriation due to transport problems.
  • Advance copy of a parliamentary question by Mr Basil Peto MP on the internment in military camps of British merchant seamen and officers, and draft reply; subsequent printed copy of the question and the reply.
  • Chief Officer Robert Pugh of SS Mount Temple, interned at Beeskow Camp: copy of a letter on the financial situation of merchant seamen in the camp.
  • Captain Frank Thomas Moynihan: authorisation for payments to be made to allow him to remain in an officers' camp.
  • A M Davies and E V Bilger, British ships' boys interned at Brandenburg Camp: request for their release.
  • Letters from various steamship companies offering to pay the necessary costs to maintain British Mercantile Marine officers in officers' camps.
  • Captain M G Packe of SS Governor: letter from Karlsrühe Camp giving the names of crew members (in docket no.135037) killed or wounded during the capture of the ship.
  • Captain F Makin, Captain Alex Hall and Captain William Mudd, interned at Karlsrühe Camp: letter regarding the status and pay of British Mercantile Marine Officers and Captains in the camp.
  • Mr Davison Dalziel MP and Major Hunt MP: parliamentary questions about the status of British Mercantile Marine Officers interned in Germany.
  • Mercantile Marine Service Association: letter enquiring about the repatriation or transfer to neutral territory of British merchant seamen prisoners.
  • Agreement by the Treasury to pay the expenses for maintaining British Mercantile Marine Officers in internment camps for combatant officers in Germany.
  • Request by the German authorities for information on the corresponding ranks of officers in the Merchant Navy and combatant officers in the Army and Royal Navy.

Code 1218 Files 35223-40483 (to paper 139642).

Date: 1917
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Former reference in its original department: Files 35223-40483 (to pp.139642).
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Closure status: Open Document, Open Description

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