The Roman jurists were not amiably disposed towards women. Indeed the Codex of Justinian declares “Do not admit women to activities of state,” adding laconically: “On account of the levity of their soul,”—“because of their lightness of mind.” After such a compliment how can we help losing the wish to begin to touch our complicated and painful State questions? But “God makes use of the brave!” And so I will take courage and go on straightway to the definite consideration of such a painful question. The subject is going to be that of Prisoners of War. Men for the most part keep complete silence about it, but why should not I make an attempt to discuss it? Prisoners of War, Germans, Slavs, and Turks with us, number about 700,000 souls,—i.e., in each case they are more than all the army of the Kingdoms of Bulgaria, Norway or Holland. From the Press and from private information we know that in Germany they do not hesitate to make use of prisoners of war by compelling them to work.

They keep them half starved, and even force them to build fortresses and to perform work of purely military nature. What do Prisoners of War do in our Country?

To this indiscreet question we obtain an answer not entirely satisfactory. About forty thousand prisoners are employed on Government and private work, while the remaining mass, i.e., more than half a million of labourers to use the Russian phrase—are “beating the hoof” and doing nothing.

This idleness in some places has already created hooliganism among them.

Well, and how do they work, the comparative few who have had different occupations assigned them?

I received a letter from a lady of my acquaintance—a land-proprietress, who said that after a deal of correspondence at last they had sent about ten prisoners to her estate. They arrived. No matter. They were calm and respectful. They were sent to a cow-yard, to dig manure. It was only then that some surprises made themselves evident: one of the prisoners was a violinist of the opera, another a photographer, a third a maker of microscopes and the fourth an official, the fifth—My God! What could one do with such as farmers? The melancholy caused by inactivity had such an effect upon them, that they actually did not refuse the rough work. But was it because such work was useful? And would it recompense the heavy outlay of their employer?

It happened to me, for instance, to meet once in a certain house some military men, some officials, civil engineers, and financiers. I began to reproach all of them together as to why it was that they did not devise a sensible treatment of this tremendous, most costly, power that we have with us. For everyone knows well that at the present moment labour is so dear, that the most important State enterprises in connexion with the building of canals, the draining of swamps, the arrangement of forest vistas, etc., are not carried out,—simply on account of the lack, and costliness of labour.

Tell me, please, what reasonable land-owner, or business man, will run the risk of employing at great expense a mob consisting of such diverse elements, of persons of different professions, ranks, and habits of life—such as those composing the parties of captives who are overrunning us to-day?

Yes, and who knows their rights and their obligations, their accountability for disobedience, say, for instance, for that refusal to work, which is so common?

I will be short in my conclusions: it seems to me to be necessary, without any putting off of matters till Doom’s Day, to work out and to publish in the Russian, German, Turkish, and Slavonic, languages a short statute about the rights, obligations, and responsibilities of prisoners of war within the boundaries of the Empire, shewing that work is obligatory for them, that refusal to work threatens besides disciplinary punishment, a lingering maintenance of black bread and water; that only partial pay will be given, while the remainder will be handed over at the conclusion of Peace, and, of course, provided that our prisoners of war are paid correspondingly for their work in Germany and Austria.

Further, it is necessary to establish military units, squad regiments, and brigades of prisoners of war according to their specialities; it is necessary to prepare the greater part for the public works of the State, having entrusted their supervision to those of our valiant officers and generals, who have been incapacitated from duties at the front by slight wounds or by mutilations. They would with readiness take upon themselves the new responsible duties in connexion with the organization of the disciplinary labour battalions of prisoners of war.

Further, it is necessary to create an hierarchy of military inspection for prisoners of war and their commissariat. We have to-day in the provinces a whole Department which does not know what to do with itself in consequence of the abolition of the Government monopoly for the sale of vodka.

A large number of beautiful buildings are standing empty. It seems to me that these buildings should be converted into schools or reading rooms with tea-rooms, while innumerable excise officials are absolutely at leisure and would be extremely useful in an economical capacity in connexion with important State undertakings.

Lastly, all Departments, and particularly those of Ways and Means and Agriculture should be compelled without any delay to bring into realization those projects that rest with them, of the vast works of building railways and land-carried canals, draining of marshes, laying-out of forests, and all the rest; things which hitherto were not completed, chiefly on account of the scarcity of, and the costliness of, labour.

Nothing will ever persuade me to the contrary, that it would have been impossible to make use of disciplinary battalions consisting of the present prisoners of war, for example, for navvies, as well as for other work in connexion with the construction of roads marked out today. Prisoners of war would at once cause the prices to fall and would expedite the completion of the work.

Of course the contractors will not grow rich by employing prisoners of war and being accountable to the Government. They certainly will do their best to demonstrate the unsuitability of this class of labour, but although they will be offended, the work will be profitable to the State!

I had, further, a casual acquaintance with the administrator of one of the Northern Governments. He suggested, energetically and with enthusiasm, the carrying out of a scheme, already thought out, with regard to the connexion of the White Sea with Lake Onega by means of constructing canals between the lakes on the route.

The length of such canals came to be almost 200 versts.*

Once more, no one can convince me that it would be impossible to employ the labour of prisoners of war for carrying out such schemes which are of the greatest importance to the State. It is a fact that Peter the Great constructed the Ladoga Canal by employing Swedish prisoners of war. And this is an obvious reproach to our lack of enterprise to-day. It is often necessary to refer to The Tsar Peter and Catharine The Great. But these references to Old Russia call up the seditious rebuke: “There were people in those days, it was possible to select the workmen. To-day we are Pygmies—not men.” “Not men!” with us in Russia, which, on the contrary, swarms with talented inventors. “Not men!” who have been sacrificed for Russia, for her glory, for her majesty! No, we have Eagles of our own.

But let us go back to the question of prisoners of war, and how to utilize them to our advantage instead of sustaining losses.

Can it possibly be that everything I determined to say about this is really unreasonable, or on the contrary, so profound and complicated that men prefer to ignore it? Or is it possible that the question of the employment of Prisoners of War, and all that I have said, does not deserve any attention, simply because the Romans used to sneer at everything that a woman said, and saw always in it foolishness of thought, especially when the subject happened to be Questions concerning the State?

OLGA NOVIKOFF, néе Kiréeff.

“Novoe Vremya,” March 24, 1915.

Pleasant news from the “Novoe Vremya,” July 8th, 1915, No. 14095. The Council of Ministers has found it to be necessary, conformably with the representations of the Minister of War, to simplify the method of allowing the employment of Prisoners of War in factory and agricultural work, by way of permitting interested persons to apply direct to the Staffs of military districts in regard to the employment of Prisoners of War, without having to apply to any intermediary Departments.