World War, PRISONERS: No Fair Exchange

“Hello, England! Hello, England! The German Government wishes to give the British Government information regarding the exchange of sick and wounded prisoners of war. . . .”

Five minutes later this cheery greeting from a German radio station in Occupied France was answered with a polite Oxonian “Thank you.” Ended, apparently, were months of dickering between World War II’s big belligerents for the exchange of some 3,000 war prisoners (excluding men able to fight). For two days last week two shiploads of military (wounded) and civilian (interned) German prisoners were held up at Newhaven as rumors flew thick & fast that scheduled sailings had been delayed because Adolf Hitler demanded the return of Rudolf Hess, who went A.W.O.L., so that he could clap him into a Nazi insane asylum.*

Then, abruptly, the newly announced sailing plans were canceled; Germany, again via radio, had called signals-off. Reason: Britain’s public announcement of the plan, whereby a comparable number of British prisoners would be picked up at Dieppe, was “considerably in advance of the facts. So far only a part exchange has been considered.”

This week the prisoners were still prisoners, but a precedent had been established. Warring powers had communicated directly, without the diplomatic formality of a third-power intermediary.

*Other Hess rumors: 1) he was interned in Canada ; 2 ) he was on a hunger strike because the British refused to treat him as a “special envoy.”