Abstract
After the outbreak of the First World War, numerous nations appointed the United States as protecting power. Among other things, this meant that US representatives were responsible for the well-being of the internees and prisoners of war of the nations they were protecting. This chapter looks at the case of Ottomans, Austro-Hungarians and Germans in the British colonial empire. It describes how US consuls suddenly became responsible for the well-being of thousands of interned enemy aliens in the British colonies, from Barbados to Hong Kong. It analyses the consuls’ visits to internment camps as well as the reports they wrote, and assesses their important role as mediators between prisoners of war, colonial authorities and belligerents.
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Notes
- 1.
Howard S. Levie defined “protecting power” as “a state which has accepted the responsibility of protecting the interests of another state in the territory of a third, with which, for some reason, such as war, the second state does not maintain diplomatic relations.” See Howard S. Levie, “Prisoners of War and the Protecting Power,” The American Journal of International Law 55, no. 2 (1961): 374.
- 2.
For an example of how this “protecting power system” continued in the Second World War, see the chapter by Rowena Ward in this collection.
- 3.
Levie, “Prisoners of War.” Of course, protecting powers can also be installed without there being a state of war, such as, for example, Switzerland acting as protecting power for the United States in Iran.
- 4.
This means that this chapter does not look at Britain itself. Ireland, the dominions and India are not taken into consideration either. In these locations, in contrast to the British colonies looked at in this chapter, protecting powers did not bear the sole responsibility for the supervision of conditions in camps. Instead, they were supported, or their efforts even dwarfed by, various other organisations such as the Quakers or the International Committee of the Red Cross. For more on this, see for example: Matthew Stibbe, “The Internment of Civilians by Belligerent States during the First World War and the Response of the International Committee of the Red Cross,” Journal of Contemporary History 41, no. 1 (2006): 5–19.
- 5.
United States Department of State, Papers relating to the foreign relations of the United States, 1914. Supplement, The World War, US State Department to all diplomatic and consular agents, August 17, 1914, accessed November 8, 2019, http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/FRUS/FRUS-idx?type=header&id=FRUS.FRUS1914Supp.
- 6.
Richard B. Speed III, Prisoners, Diplomats, and the Great War: A Study in the Diplomacy of Captivity (Westport: Greenwood, 1990).
- 7.
See William Edward Hall, A Treatise on International Law (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1890), 314.
- 8.
This was, for example, the issue in Barbados, where the Swiss officially acted as protecting power but there was no Swiss consul on the island. Over a year after the last visit of the US consul, it could finally be arranged for the acting Swedish consul in Barbados to visit the internees. See: TNA, FO 383/347/191349, CO to FO, October 3, 1917; TNA, CO 28/294/4308, FO to CO, January 24, 1918; TNA, CO 28/293/4633, Probyn to CO, January 25, 1918; TNA, CO 28/294/6906, FO to CO, February 7, 1918 and TNA, CO 28/293/15729, Probyn to CO, March 1, 1918.
- 9.
TNA, CO 37/262/22018, FO to CO, May 4, 1918, enclosed camp report by Swiss Consul Louis H. Junod and Dr. Conrad Jenny.
- 10.
For more on internment and prisoners of war in Britain and Germany, see for example: Heather Jones, Violence against Prisoners of War in the First World War. Britain, France and Germany, 1914–1920 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011); Oliver Wilkinson, British Prisoners of War in First World War Germany (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017); Panikos Panayi, Prisoners of Britain: German Civilian and Combatant Internees During the First World War (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012) or Matthew Stibbe, British Civilian Internees in Germany. The Ruhleben Camp, 1914–1918 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2008). For an excellent general overview of global internment during the Great War, see Matthew Stibbe, Civilian Internment During the First World War. A European and Global History, 1914–1920 (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
- 11.
For more in-depth information on internment in the British colonies, see Tamara Braun, “‘Leave ‘no stone unturned’ in the hunt for Alien Enemies?’ The British and their Enemy Aliens in the Colonial Empire, 1914–1924” (PhD diss., University of Bern, 2020).
- 12.
See, for example, Stefan Manz, Panikos Panayi and Matthew Stibbe, eds., Internment during the First World War. A Mass Global Phenomenon (London: Routledge, 2019).
- 13.
See various documents in: United States Department of State, Papers relating to the foreign relations of the United States, 1914. Supplement, The World War, accessed November 8, 2019, http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/FRUS/FRUS-idx?type=header&id=FRUS.FRUS1914Supp.
- 14.
TNA, CO 137/729/16344, FO to CO, April 3, 1918.
- 15.
See for example TNA, CO 129/424/56940, May to CO, October 28, 1915, enclosed camp report by Anderson.
- 16.
TNA, CO 91/458/17104, Miles to CO, March 31, 1915, enclosed report by Sprague.
- 17.
TNA, CO 129/424/56940, May to CO, October 28, 1915, enclosed camp report by Anderson. In contrast to camps elsewhere, the camp commandant did not agree to this, claiming that this “would give rise to an unnecessary amount of correspondence. I think that the Prisoners of War may well be left under direct and absolute British management without interference by the United States of America’s Consul General […].” See: TNA, CO 129/424/56940, May to CO, October 28, 1915, enclosed camp report by US consul Anderson and statement by GOC (General Officer Commanding) Ventris.
- 18.
TNA, CO 37/259/55921, FO to CO, November 21, 1916, enclosed camp report by Loop.
- 19.
TNA, CO 28/290/16171, FO to CO, April 4, 1916, enclosed report by Livingston.
- 20.
See TNA, CO 37/259/36737, Foreign Office (FO) to CO, August 3, 1916, enclosed camp report by Loop.
- 21.
See for example TNA, CO 37/259/62502, FO to CO, December 28, 1916, enclosed letter and report by Loop.
- 22.
See for example TNA, CO 37/259/18443, FO to CO, April 17, 1916, enclosed camp report by Loop.
- 23.
TNA, CO 129/424/56940, May to CO, October 28, 1915, enclosed camp report by Anderson.
- 24.
TNA, CO 137/710/33171, Manning to CO, July 2, 1915, enclosed letter by Monaghan.
- 25.
Ibid.
- 26.
See for example TNA, CO 37/259/36737, FO to CO, August 3, 1916, enclosed camp report by Loop.
- 27.
TNA, CO 37/259/62502, FO to CO, December 28, 1916, enclosed letter and report by Loop.
- 28.
See for example TNA, CO 129/415/3941, May to CO, December 17, 1914, enclosed camp report by Anderson.
- 29.
See remark by the US consul of Bermuda, Carl Loop, in: TNA, CO 37/259/43710, FO to CO, September 12, 1916, enclosed camp report by Loop.
- 30.
See for example TNA, CO 129/424/56940, May to CO, October 28, 1915, enclosed camp report by Anderson or TNA, CO 158/395/2925 FO to CO, June 21, 1916, enclosed report by Keblinger.
- 31.
TNA, CO 91/458/17104, Miles to CO, March 31, 1915, enclosed report by R. L. Sprague.
- 32.
See for example TNA, CO 295/506/40210, Chancellor to CO, August 3, 1916, enclosed camp report by McConnico.
- 33.
TNA, CO 295/511/11053, Chancellor to CO, February 5, 1917, enclosed camp report by Henry D. Baker. The US consul in Bermuda had a similar theory. See: TNA, CO 37/259/43710, FO to CO, September 12, 1916, enclosed camp report by Loop.
- 34.
TNA, CO 37/259/49753, FO to CO, October 16, 1916, enclosed report by Loop.
- 35.
For more on this, see for example: Kenneth Steuer, “German Propaganda and Prisoners-of-War during World War I,” in World War I and Propaganda, ed. Troy R.E. Paddock (Boston: Brill, 2014), 155–180.
- 36.
See for example the newspaper article attached in: TNA, WO 154/324, war diary of Provost Marshal on January 22, 1915 or complaint by former internee Theodor Nicolas about the conditions in North Borneo after his return to the German Empire: TNA, CO 531/9/52011, BNBCo to CO, November 10, 1915.
- 37.
TNA, CO 158/395/2925, FO to CO, June 21, 1916, enclosed camp reports on Malta by Keblinger.
- 38.
TNA, CO 129/415/3941, May to CO, December 17, 1914, enclosed report by Anderson. The consul concluded there was no truth in these claims.
- 39.
See for example TNA, CO 129/424/56940, May to CO, October 28, 1915, enclosed camp report by Anderson.
- 40.
TNA, CO 129/415/3941, May to CO, December 17, 1914, enclosed camp report by Anderson.
- 41.
See for example TNA, CO 37/259/18443, FO to CO, April 17, 1916, enclosed report by Loop or TNA, CO 37/262/22018, FO to CO, May 4, 1918, enclosed report by Junod and Jenny.
- 42.
TNA, CO 37/259/36737, FO to CO, August 3, 1916, enclosed camp report by Loop. It is unclear whether the quality of the margarine had been improved just because of Loop’s intervention.
- 43.
TNA, CO 513/10/17519, Ridgeway to CO, April 11, 1916, enclosed report by G.M. Hanson.
- 44.
This of course does not mean that there was any racial equality or harmony, as events in numerous British colonies just after the end of the war show. For more on this, see for example: Jacqueline Jenkinson, Black 1919: Riots, Racism and Resistance in Imperial Britain (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2009).
- 45.
Whether the internees’ complaints were linked to wider debates and German criticism of the Entente using black soldiers in the war is questionable since all the news the internees received was censored. For more on this theme, see for example: Christian Koller, “Von Wilden aller Rassen niedergemetzelt”. Die Diskussion um die Verwendung von Kolonialtruppen in Europa zwischen Rassismus, Kolonial- und Militärpolitik (1914–1930) (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2001).
- 46.
TNA, CO 295/511/16436, Chancellor to CO, March 5, 1917, enclosed statement by Baker. Linking the black prison guards which served at a handful of internment camps in British colonies to debates on the First World War as a “white man’s war” would probably be a stretch too far. These debates mainly centre on the direct participation of black soldiers and labourers at or near the front. The guards discussed here mainly seem to have regarded the watching of enemy internees as part of their everyday job which they were paid for, many of them already having been regular prison guards or soldiers before the outbreak of war. For more on this notion of the Great War as predominantly a war of the “white man,” see for example; Gordon Douglas Pollock, Black Soldiers in a White Man’s War. Race, Good Order and Discipline in a Great War Labour Battalion (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018). It would perhaps make more sense to see the role of these guards in the wider context of the colonial homefronts. Unfortunately, not much literature on this exists to date. An exception is: Glenford Howe, Race, War and Nationalism. A Social History of West Indians in the First World War (Kingston, Ian Randle Publishers, 2002).
- 47.
TNA, FO 383/240/183458, US Chargé d’Affaires to FO, enclosed camp report by Keblinger.
- 48.
TNA, CO 91/458/17104, Miles to CO, March 31, 1915, enclosed report by Sprague.
- 49.
TNA, CO 295/506/44988, Chancellor to CO, August 22, 1916, enclosed letter from prisoners of war to McConnico.
- 50.
Ibid., enclosed report by Percy Fraser.
- 51.
Ibid., enclosed letter from internees to McConnico.
- 52.
Ibid.
- 53.
TNA, CO 295/507/58174, Chancellor to CO, November 8, 1916.
- 54.
TNA, CO 295/510/60996, FO to CO, December 20, 1916, enclosed camp report by McConnico.
- 55.
TNA, CO 531/10/17519, BNBCo (British North Borneo Company) to CO, April 11, 1916, enclosed report by Hanson.
- 56.
See for example TNA, CO 295/506/44988, Chancellor to CO, August 22, 1916, enclosed letter from prisoners of war to McConnico.
- 57.
See for example TNA, CO 91/455/17104, Miles to CO, March 31, 1915, enclosed report by Sprague.
- 58.
TNA, CO 383/240/183458, report on visit of camps in Malta by Keblinger, August 14, 1916.
- 59.
TNA, CO 295/511/16436, Chancellor to CO, March 5, 1917, enclosed report by Baker.
- 60.
TNA, CO 28/289/55626, Probyn to CO, October 23, 1916, enclosed letter from Fell to Livingston.
- 61.
Ibid. and TNA, CO 28/291/10493, Probyn to CO, January 26, 1917, enclosed report by Fell and Harrel.
- 62.
TNA, CO 28/289/55626, Probyn to CO, October 23, 1916, enclosed letter from Fell to Livingston.
- 63.
Ibid., CO minutes on this paper.
- 64.
Ibid.
- 65.
TNA, CO 28/290/210, Probyn to CO, December 14, 1916, enclosed camp report by Livingston.
- 66.
Ibid.
- 67.
TNA, CO 28/291/10493, enclosed report by Livingston.
- 68.
TNA, CO 28/291/10784, Probyn to CO, January 26, 1917, enclosed report by Harrel and Barrington.
- 69.
TNA, CO 28/291/10493, Probyn to CO, January 26, 1917, enclosed report by Livingston.
- 70.
TNA, CO 28/290/210, Probyn to CO, December 14, 1916, CO minutes on this paper.
- 71.
TNA, CO 28/291/10784, Probyn to CO, January 26, 1917, enclosed report by the camp’s commander and medical officer.
- 72.
Ibid.
- 73.
See TNA, CO 28/291/10493, enclosed report by Livingston with extracts of claims by German internees. See also: TNA, CO 28/290/210, Probyn to CO, December 14, 1916, enclosed letter from Fell to Livingston; TNA, TNA, CO 28/291/10785, Probyn to CO, January 31, 1917.
- 74.
TNA, CO 28/292/7840, FO to CO, February 12, 1917, CO minutes on this paper.
- 75.
TNA, CO 28/291/10785, Probyn to CO, January 31, 1917, CO minutes on this paper and TNA, FO 383/346/29713, US Ambassador to FO, February 6, 1917, FO minutes on this paper.
- 76.
TNA, CO 28/291/14871, Probyn to CO, February 20, 1917.
- 77.
TNA, CO 37/259/62502, FO to CO, December 28, 1916, enclosed letter and report by Loop.
- 78.
Stefan Manz and Panikos Panayi, “The Internment of Civilian ‘Enemy Aliens’ in the British Empire,” in Internment during the First World War: A Mass Global Phenomenon, ed. Stefan Manz, Panikos Panayi and Matthew Stibbe (London: Routledge, 2019), 32.
- 79.
The “Committee for the Relief of German and Austro-Hungarian Prisoners of War” in New York was such a charity. See TNA, CO 37/259/61655, FO to CO, December 23, 1916, enclosed camp report by Loop on Bermuda.
References
Archival Sources
The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Colonial Office, CO 28 (Barbados); CO 37 (Bermuda); CO 137 (Jamaica); CO 129 (Hong Kong); CO 91 (Gibraltar); CO 158 (Malta), CO 295 (Trinidad and Tobago); CO 531 (North Borneo).
The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Foreign Office, FO 383 Series (Prisoners of War).
The National Archives of the UK, War Office, WO 154/324 (War Diary Provost Marshal, South China Command).
United States Department of State, Papers relating to the foreign relations of the United States, 1914. Supplement, The World War. http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/FRUS/FRUS-idx?type=header&id=FRUS.FRUS1914Supp. Accessed November 8, 2019.
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Cubito, T. (2021). “Any Unfavourable Condition or Untoward Circumstance Will Receive Immediate Attention”: American Consuls’ Visits to British Colonial Internment Camps of the Great War. In: Berni, M., Cubito, T. (eds) Captivity in War during the Twentieth Century. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65095-7_2
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