19 OCTOBER 1918, Page 1
The British Government have addressed a strong and solemn warning
to Germany on the treatment of prisoners of war. They announce that they are unable to yield to the German demand that the recent arrangement for the exchange of prisoners should be dependent upon guarantees being given that the Germans in Chins will not be deported or interned. This demand was of course black- mail and nothing else. The position of the Germans in China has nothing in the world to do with the exchange of British and German prisoners ; it concerns China and Germany, and them alone. As our Government could not yield to blackmail, and cannot compel the German Government to ratify the arrangement made by Sir George Cave and Lord Newton at the Hague, they can but fall back upon thr.ats.
