Page:The New York Times, 1918-11-11.pdf/9

 

AN ATLANTIC PORT, Nov. 10.—Seven hundred passengers, of whom nearly 500 were Canadian women and children on their way home, arrived here today on a British liner after a fine passage across from England without incident of any kind. Among the officers on board was Lieutenant Eduard Isaacs, U.S.N., who was taken prisoner by the German submarine which sank the transport President Lincoln on May 31. He managed to escape from the prison camp at Villenghen on Oct. 6 and had a series of adventures, including the swimming of the Rhine.

The Lieutenant, who is 2 years old and comes from Cresa, Iowa, left at once for Washington. He could not give an interview to the reporters on his arrival, but a friend who was on the liner with him gave the following account, which he had received from Lieutenant Isaacs during the voyage:

After the crew and the troops left the President Lincoln in the lifeboats and on the rafts Lieutenant Isaacs, who had not taken off his insignia of rank from his jacket, was taken out of his boat by the German commandant and placed on the submarine, where he spent eleven days until the craft reached Kiel. During that time the submarine called at the Shetland Islands and sent two marines ashore with loaded rifles, and they came off with eight sheep. The German officers treated him well and were confident that their armies would crush the Allies before the end of July and the war would be over.

Four miles off the entrance to the Kiel Canal the U-boat was met by four other German undersea craft and two destroyers, which escorted her into the harbor. After a delay of a few hours the submarine passed through the canal to Wilhelmshaven, where Lieutenant Isaacs was kept three days on board. During that time he tried to escape, but found that the place was so well guarded day and night that it was impossible to get away. He was next taken by train to Karlsruhe and placed in a prison camp, where several British officers had been for some time.

The Lieutenant said that his room had a big chandelier in it, which he thought rather luxurious for a prison, until he removed a mirror hanging on the wall to put in a better light for him to shave. Then he read a message scratched on the wall: "Beware of the dictaphones attached to the chandelier."

The British officers and the American naval Lieutenant concocted a plan for escape, which was frustrated the night before it was to come off. In consequence of this all the officers except two British Generals and two other officers who shared his room were sent away from Karlsruhe. Lieutenant Isaacs and the other prisoners were taken before a court-martial, and told that they would be summarily dealt with if they attempted to escape again.

A few days later lIeutenant Isaacs was sent by train to Villenghen, in Baden, and tried to escape on the way. At the time the train was just arriving at the top of a small mountain he made a dive through the window as the guard in the compartment with him was looking the other way. The train was going about forty miles an hour, and he struck the rail with a violence that knocked him out for a few seconds. He was restored to his sense by the shouts of the guards, who had stopped the train and the rifle bullets which fell all around him. When one struck within six inches of his left ear he thought it was time to surrender. The guards put him back in the train, and finally he reached the next camp.

After a few days at Vellenghen Lieutenant Isaacs arranged a plan of escape with some British prisoners which was brought off successfully on the night of Oct. 6. Out of thirteen who started he heard that three besides himself had reached Switzerland in safety. By bribing the guards they procured wooden battens which were cut down and made into conduits to pass over the charged electric wires outside the cells. They also got another wire to throw across the electric wires in the building and cause a short circuit so that the guards should not see them when the alarm was given.

At 11 o'clock the signal was given and the thirteen prisoners got safely out of the building and crawled through a ditch twenty feet deep filled with barbed wire and across a parapet ten feet high, composed of the same kind of entanglement. By that time the alarm had been given, but the guards could not find their guns. The sentries fired into the darkness continually, but did not hit any of the escaping men.

For seven days the Lieutenant with a companion lived in the woods by day and fed on cabbage leaves and nuts and walked twenty miles every night until they reached the Rhine near the Swiss frontier. Before they could get to the river a series of brooks had to be crossed by stepping from stone to stone for nearly two miles. They both plunged into the swift moving river which carried away his companion, and Isaacs never saw him again.

Lieutenant Isaacs kept on for a quarter of an hour when he felt that his strength was going and that he would be whirled away by the current down towards the sea. Suddenly his feet touched a rock and then another rock. He realized that he had reached the other side of the Rhine. A short walk brought him to a Swiss sentry who welcomed him with open arms as an American, and gave him hot coffee and dry clothes. After a rest he was provided with money and reached Paris on Oct. 22.

Lieutenant Isaacs is an Annapolis cadet and his wife, who was the daughter of Major Gen. De Rosey C. Cabell, U.S.A., lives at Doublas, Ariz.

 

As part of its campaign for the passage of the bill for the Federal supervision of war charities the American Victory Union yesterday sent out a statement asserting that large sums collected for war charities had been put into the pockets of the collectors. The statement included also indorsement of the campaign now being conducted by the United War Work Committee to raise $250,000,000 for the work of the Y.M.C.A., Y.W.C.A., the Knights of Columbus, the Jewish Welfare Board, the War Camp Community Service, the American Library Association, and the Salvation Army.

The statement alleges that the total gathered by dishonest committees is about $25,000,000, and it says the bill introduced by Senator Ashurst will prevent illegal collecting of funds for all charities, even after the end of the war. Many of these committees are still operating, the Union says.

 

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10.—Additional land and ship facilities at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station and the Puget Sound (Wash.) Navy Yard and for a permanent Marine Corps base at Quantico, Va., will be taken over by the Government, under a proclamation by President Wilson, made public today. Authority to acquire the land was given in the Naval Appropriation bills approved July 1. Compensation is to be made in the usual way.

 

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10.—All persons known to have been on board the American steamer Saetia, sunk yesterday morning off the Maryland coast, have been saved. Additional survivors landed at Cape May today brought the number to 83, accounting for everybody on the ship's lists.

 

Henry Crosby Emery, who was sent to Russia in 1916 by the Guaranty Trust Company of New York, to write a series of articles on the economic conditions existing in that country and who was taken prisoner by the Germans on Aland Island last March as he was escaping to Sweden, arrived in this city yesterday on the Norwegian-American liner Bergensfjörd. He left later for his home near Boston.

Mr. Emery was only confined for six weeks at Danzig and was then taken to Berlin, where he was at large until Oct. 22, when he was permitted to leave Germany and go to Copenhagen. When asked to give his opinion as to what would be the effect of the abdication of the Kaiser in Berlin and the upsetting of the autocratic form of Government, Mr. Emery replied:

"When I left Berlin the German people had made up their minds that they were beaten and were glad to accept the terms laid down by President Wilson under his fourteen points. The abdication of the Kaiser was the gossip of the clubs and hotels and was expected to occur any day.

"It did not really matter much to people. All they cared for was to have peace. The intelligent people of Germany conceded that they would have to give up Alsace-Lorraine and a part of Eastern Poland, pay indemnities to Belgium as well as restore the country and considered it was just what was deserved. In regard to the Colonies I think their ideas were a little different.

"Conditions were quiet in Berlin when I left and the people were orderly and calmly awaiting the setting up of the new democratic government. What happens now will depend upon whether the Bolshevist element among the Socialists obtains control of the situation, but I am not in a position to discuss the political outlook, as the conditions have changed so quickly while I have been at sea. There is nothing left for the people to do except to accept President Wilson's terms of peace, and they were glad to do it at the time I came away."

Mrs. Emery was with her husband when he was captured on Aland Island while traveling on sleighs across the ice to Sweden, but the Germans allowed her to go free, and she arrived home in May. She met her husband on his arrival, and will return home with him.

 

When Corporal Isaac Cohn of an infantry unit fighting in France was notified by his wife of the birth of their son on Friday, Sept. 13, he recalled that this was the anniversary date of the birth of his commander, and he cabled to his wife, Mrs. Bessie Cohn, to name the infant Pershing Jerome Cohn. She did so, and then wrote from her home at 901 Prospect Avenue, Bronx, to General Pershing, telling him "I am the proudest mother in the world to have my baby bear the name of one whom the people of the entire civilized world look up to as their savior." Last night Mrs. Cohn said she had received a reply on Friday from the American commander, in which he wrote:

"Master Pershing Jerome Cohn:

Dear Little Pershing: Although it will be some time before you are old enough to read this, s you are only a month old today, I am writing to tell you how pleased I am to have a little boy who was born on my birthday for a namesake. I hope that you will grow up to be a strong, industrious boy, and that as the years go by, you will continue to grow, both physically and morally, so that your parents may always be as justly proud of you as they are now. With every good wish for a long and happy life, I am, sincerely yours,

JOHN J. PERSHING."

The boy's father went to France four months ago. He was a member of the firm of B. Cohn & Co., 128 West Twenty-seventh Street.

 

George MacDonald, Chairman, and other members of the special Commitee on Building and Construction of the Mayor's Committee on National Defense, left last night for Washington to consult with the War Industries Board in an effort to obtain a more liberal interpretation of the board's orders halting nonessential construction work here.

"It is hoped," said Mr. MacDonald, "that the new few weeks will develop such radical changed in the Government's nonessential construction program that the architects, builders, and supply men will receive licenses to proceed on the construction of buildings where the use of steel is not contemplated."

 

LONDON, Nov. 10.—The Government tonight issued a statement that the Minister of Reconstruction would announce the Government's general reconstruction policy to Parliament on Tuesday.

In the meantime elaborate instructions have been given for the slowing down of munitions production and the replacement of the workmen, with a scheme of donations for unemployment, to remain in force for six months.

<section end="Reconstruction in Britain" /> <section begin="Serbs Sweep Northward" />

PARIS, Nov. 10.—The official bulletin tonight on operations in the East says:

"North of the Danube and the Save Serbian troops have advanced in the direction of Waiskirschen and Reeskerek, driving back German troops who are retreating to the north in Bosnia, and have entered Sarajevo, where the National Council and the people have welcomed them enthusiastically.

"The number of prisoners taken in the course of the fighting which preceded the taking of Scutari by the Serbians on Oct. 30 was 4,000, of whom 120 were officers. Numerous cannon and war supplies were captured.

"North of Scutari, Pogoritza, and Nizsitch were occupied by the Serbians, aided by Montenegrins."

<section end="Serbs Sweep Northward" /> <section begin="Coal Output Drops More" />

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10.—Production of both bituminous and anthracite coal continues to decrease as the result of the influenza epidenic, and a renewed appeal for conservation by householders and others was issued today by the Fuel Administration.

During the week ended Nov. 2 the output of bituminous coal was 10,965,000 net tons, a decrease of 3 per cent. compared with the week before, while only 1,500,000 net tons of anthracite was produced compared with 1,714,000 net tons the previous week.

<section end="Coal Output Drops More" /> <section begin="War Fliers Get Medals" />

PARIS, Nov. 7.—The Foreign Service Committee of the Aero Club of America has conferred its war medal on Gabriele d'Annunzio of the Italian Army, Lieutenants Forest and Marchal of the French Army, and Douglas Campbell of California, Frank Luke of Phoenix, Aris., and Edward Rockenbacker of Columbus, Ohio.

Posthumous awards are made to Lieutenant Coiffard of the French Army, Paul Pavelka of Madison, Conn., and Ensigns C. S. Read and A. D. Sturtevant of the American Navy.

<section end="War Fliers Get Medals" /> <section begin="Havana Labor Leaders Jailed" />

HAVANA, Nov. 9.—Leaders of the harbor unions which have been on strike for nearly a week, completely tieing up shipping the harbor here, were placed under arrest today on charges of preventing men from returning to work by coercion. The labor leaders, nine in number, were sentenced to eighty days' imprisonment.

<section end="Havana Labor Leaders Jailed" /> <section begin="China Extends Loan" />

PEKING, Friday, Nov. 8, (Associated Press.)—A further extension of six months has been granted by the Chinese Government on the currency loan agreement of 1910, which expired on Oct. 14. The amount of the loan was £10,000,000, and its purpose was to reform the currency system. Owing to the revolution the loan was not completed.

The loan referred to above is the famous "four power" agreement, under which a group of American, English, German, and French financiers loaned China $50,000,000. According to the terms of the agreement the loan was to have peen paid in installments, but the unsettled condition of the country, due to the unrest in China, has prevented the carrying out of the agreement.

<section end="China Extends Loan" /> <section begin="Open Hut in Seward Park" />

Several thousand persons went to Seward Park yesterday morning to attend the opening of the attractive new canteen hut for soldiers and sailors by the Jewish Welfare Board. There was speech-making and music. Former Ambassador Abram I. Elkus presided at the exercises and Jacob H. Schiff was the principal speaker.

"Now that the war is ending happily for everybody," said Mr. Schiff, "the Jewish Welfare Board, the Y.M.C.A., the K. of C. and other war work organizations will for many months need our support more than ever, our soldiers and sailors will demand more attention when the grim business of battle is over and the guns have ceased. When the boys come back we want them to feel that we did what we could for them."

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