oss units at present in England are immediately
returned, no further exchange of British medical officers can be
contemplated." [Cf. too Miscel. 30 (1916) pp. 2, 36; also International
Red Cross Reports, First Series, pp. 18, 19.]

CREDULITY ONCE MORE.

The general experiences of Mr. Austin are very similar to those of Mr.
O'Rorke. At Bouvigny "a somewhat offensive non-commissioned officer ...
removed all knives that we had and was greatly excited at the presence
of the large jack-knife which had been issued to us before we left.
These knives carried a long spike, for punching leather and opening
tins, and the story has been circulated in Germany that these knives
were issued to the troops for the express purpose of gouging out the
eyes of the German wounded." There is something pathetically hopeless
about these aspects of human credulity in war-time. When we see the
extraordinary nonsense that each side readily believes of the other, we
must accept it as something to the credit of human nature that any
reasonable treatment of prisoners occurs at all.

ORDINARY HUMANITY.

"Our other personal effects," the narrative goes on, "including our
money, were returned to us." The doctor's papers had not been returned
by the German officers who originally examined him, and this fact caused
many delays and annoyances, but one does not read of any actual
ill-treatment. The use of dogs is referred to (see p. 33). The last
incident on German territory is thus recorded: "When the Holland train
drew in the officer had not returned, but one of our party who spoke
German well informed the sergeant that the officers had told us we were
to go by this train, and he very obligingly placed us in it after we had
taken tickets to the nearest Dutch station, Ozendaal."

REPORTS OF THE INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS.

To me it seems that the Swiss have made some of the finest efforts of
the spirit during this war. It is no mean achievement. Some are bound by
many ties of friendship to the German people, some to the French. There
has, of course, been occasional failure and sheer partisanship, but an
utterance such as that of Carl Spitteler is marvellous in its
determination to do justice, and in its reverence for the suffering of
all the nations. The International Committee of the Red Cross at Geneva
has been a centre of kindliness in the midst of carnage. In France and
in Germany a committee was, by mutual agreement, established consisting
o