PRISONER OF WAR 



PRITCHARD 



a chairman and four paid commis- 

 sioners, assisted by inspectors and 

 other officials. In Scotland similar 

 duties are performed by the Prison 

 Commission, 11, Rutland Square, 

 Edinburgh, and in Ireland by the 

 General Prison Board at Dublin. 



Prisoner of War. Subject of a 

 belligerent country detained for a 

 period of war. In early times pri- 

 soners of war were regarded. as the 

 property of their captors, and as 

 such were liable to slavery, or to 

 ransom, if their rank and wealth 

 permitted it ; and it was not until 

 the 13th century that the exchange 

 of prisoners began. 



During the 19th century the 

 growth of humanitarian sentiment 

 gradually brought recognition that 

 a prisoner had certain rights, and 

 the Hague Convention of 1907, of 

 which Germany was a signatory, 

 included detailed regulations de- 

 signed to ameliorate the condition 

 of life in internment camps. 



During the Great War the enor- 

 mous numbers of prisoners on both 

 sides made full compliance with 

 these and other conditions a matter 

 of considerable difficulty. While 

 Great Britain treated enemy pri- 

 soners on the whole with some- 

 thing like generosity, large num- 

 bers of British prisoners in German 

 hands suffered almost incredible 

 hardships and indignities. Some 

 camps were much worse than 

 others, those in Prussia being, 

 perhaps, the worst. The Turks had 

 a bad reputation for brutality. 



The transmission to prisoners of 

 war of letters, parcels of food, cloth- 

 ing, etc., involved during the Great 

 War the building-up of an enor- 

 mous organization. The various 

 official information bureaux at- 

 tempted to keep an exact record 

 of every prisoner of war. The many 

 philanthropic and regimental funds 

 for supplying British prisoners with 

 comforts were finally coordinated 

 with good results, and many men 

 were literally kept alive by means 

 of the parcels which reached them. 



The exchange of prisoners be- 

 tween belligerents may take place 

 at any time on a basis of equality 

 by formal agreement, but during 

 the Great War a long time elapsed 

 before any such agreement was 

 reached. Switzerland, however, 

 received a certain number of badly 

 wounded officers and men, and 

 cared for them until repatriated. 



A prisoner of war is bound to 

 state his true name and rank, but 

 cannot be compelled to give any 

 further information to the enemy. 

 If he attempts to escape, he may 

 be shot down, but is not to be 

 treated as a criminal. Officers must 

 be given the pay of their rank, and 

 they pay for their maintenance. 



They must not be set to work. On 

 the other hand, a British prisoner 

 of war is liable to punishment on 

 returning home if it is proved that 

 he was taken prisoner through 

 want of due precaution, disobedi- 

 ence to orders, or wilful neglect of 

 duty ; or if he fails to rejoin if able 

 to do so, or serves or voluntarily 

 aids the enemy. See Doberitz : 

 Internment Camp; Ruhleben. 



Prisoner of Zenda, THE. Ro- 

 mantic drama founded by Edward 

 Rose on Anthony Hope's novel of 

 the same name. It was produced 

 Jan. 7, 1896, at the St. James's 

 Theatre, London, where it attained 

 a run of 254 performances. The 

 story is concerned with the attempt 

 to substitute Rudolf Rassendyl, a 

 young Englishman, for the king of 

 Ruritania. George Alexander 

 played Rassendyl and King Ru- 

 dolf V, Evelyn Millard Princess 

 Flavia, Herbert Waring Duke 

 Michael, H. B. Irving Captain 

 Hentzau, and W. H. Vernon 

 Colonel Sapt. 



Prisoner's Friend. At courts 

 martial, a person, officially styled 

 Friend of Accused, authorised to 

 assist the accused in his defence. 

 He may be a qualified legal adviser 

 or any other person. If the friend 

 is not a barrister, a solicitor, or an 

 officer subject to military law, he 

 can only advise the accused and 

 suggest questions to be put by him 

 to witnesses; but if he is a bar- 

 rister, a solicitor, or an officer sub- 

 ject to military law, he has the 

 rights and duties of counsel under 

 the rules of military law. 



Prison Reform. Term used to 

 express the efforts, legislative and 

 otherwise, to improve the position 

 of criminals undergoing detention. 



The first to call serious attention 

 to the terrible state of the prisons 

 in England and Wales was John 

 Howard (1726-90), His State of 

 the Prisons in England was an 

 investigation of the penal system 

 without parallel, but though his 

 tale of horror stirred public opinion, 

 it was not till fifty years after his 

 death that the first real steps in 

 reform were taken. The dark cell 

 was still a favourite form of prison 

 punishment in the early decades of 

 the 19th century; Millbank was a 

 place without humanity, Newgate 

 a pestilential horror. The wort of 

 Mrs. Fry, who first visited Newgate 

 in 1813, and that of the Prison 

 Discipline Society produced tem- 

 porary reforms only. In 1839 a 

 new era was inaugurated by a bill 

 for advancing separate confine- 

 ment of prisoners, and in 1842 

 Pentonville was finished, the first 

 model prison where isolation was 

 carried out in an extreme form. 

 Till 1853 prisoners wore mask? 



along the passages, sat in separated 

 pigeon-holes in chapel, and were 

 partitioned off whilst undergoing 

 the dreaded treadmill punishment. 



The aim of all modern prison 

 reform is reform of the prisoner 

 by methods of humanity, as 

 opposed to methods of torture of 

 either body or mind. Prisons are 

 on the cellular principle, though 

 the application of that principle 

 has varied enormously. In France, 

 Holland, Belgium, Portugal, Nor- 

 way and Sweden, and Germany it 

 is practised with extreme severity. 

 In Belgium and Holland in par- 

 ticular the cellular system has been 

 carried to the utmost lengths of 

 human endurance. In the British 

 Dominions the cellular system has 

 been widely adopted, though modi- 

 fied to suit local conditions, gener- 

 ally on the humane side. In New 

 Zealand, for example, convicts are 

 taught farming, each being sup- 

 plied with his own plot of land and 

 a healthy rivalry encouraged, and 

 every released prisoner is found 

 employment and removed as far as 

 possible from any chances of 

 slipping back. 



The American prison systems 

 vary, from the most advanced to 

 the most backward. The reform- 

 atories at Elmira and Concord are 

 examples of the best modern 

 practice, and the county gaols of 

 the worst prison systems. See 

 Borstal System ; Conciergerie ; 

 Criminology ; Millbank ; Newgate ; 

 Penology ; Punishment. 



Bibliography. State of Prisons in 

 England and Wales, J. Howard, 

 1777 ; Penological and Preventive 

 Principles, W. Tallack, 2nd ed. 

 1896 ; Prisons, Police and Punish- 

 ment, E. Carpenter, 1905 ; The 

 Making of the Criminal, C. E. B. 

 Russell and L. M. Rigby, 1906 ; 

 Modern Prison Curriculum, R. F. 

 Quinton, 1912 ; A History of Penal 

 Methods, G. Ives, 1914 ; The English 

 Prison System, Sir E. Ruggles- 

 Brise, 1921. 



Prit chard, EDWARD WILLIAM 

 (1825-65). British poisoner. He 

 was born at Southsea, Hampshire, 

 and, after qualifying as a surgeon, 

 served for a short time as a naval 

 surgeon before marrying the 

 daughter of a retired silk mer- 

 chant and settling down to prac- 

 tice in Yorkshire, and in 1860 in 

 Glasgow. In Dec., 1864, his wife 

 was taken ill. In 1865 her mother, 

 Mrs. Taylor, came from Edin- 

 burgh to nurse her, and died mys- 

 teriously on Feb. 25, Mrs. Prit- 

 chard dying on March 17. Al- 

 though the suspicions of other 

 medical men who had seen the 

 patients were aroused, Pritchard 

 completed all the formalities in 

 connexion with their burial, and 

 was present at the funerals. An 



