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ABSTRACT
Parcels of comforting food sent from the United Kingdom loom large in accounts of how British POWs were sustained during the First World War. But these care packages provoked considerable contestation amongst a variety of stakeholders. While food parcels were part of humanitarianism, the state had considerable oversight as to the amount of food dispatched, the contents of the parcels and who was allowed to send them. They were thus a critical part of the British government’s wartime food strategy. The state’s regulations mitigated the effects of class privilege that extended even into the camps by helping to equalize food distribution amongst interned British subjects. But the British government’s control over parcels starting in late 1916 provoked tensions amongst voluntary associations and led to criticism from the families of imprisoned men and from some POWs themselves who decried what they saw as unnecessary meddling. The standardization and centralization of the parcel system, argued its opponents, undermined the role of families who wished to remain connected to their captive loved ones through nurturing their bodies. In addition, it challenged the masculinity of POWs by rendering them dependent on the state. Sending parcels to British prisoners was thus a much more fraught enterprise and one that involved considerably more government oversight than scholarship on the First World War has previously acknowledged.
Acknowledgments
I am extremely grateful to the staff of The National Archives, UK, and the Imperial War Museum, London for providing me access to necessary sources and ideal research environments. I received extremely thoughtful and insightful feedback from two anonymous external reviewers for this journal. My colleague Julie Ault provided help with German history and translations. I would also like to thank those who attended the 2017 Pacific Coast Conference on British Studies and responded to my paper, as well as members of the British Studies Research Interest Group at the University of Utah.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Jones, “A Missing Paradigm?” 36; Wilkinson, British Prisoners of War, 104–112, 123−30; Van Emden, Prisoners of the Kaiser, 113−26; and Yarnall, Barbed Wire Disease, 107−20.
2. Barnett, British Food Policy.
3. Jones, Violence Against Prisoners; Wilkinson, British Prisoners of War; Feltman, Stigma of Surrender; Panayi, Prisoners of Britain; Murphy, Colonial Captivity; Rachamimov, POWs; and Stibbe, British Civilian Internees.
4. Rachamimov, POWs, 69−70.
5. Jones, “A Missing Paradigm?”; for the history of the use of camps before WWI see Forth, Barbed-Wire Imperialism.
6. Foucault, Discipline and Punish, 297−8.
7. Statement Concerning the Principles Observed in the Housing, Feeding, and Clothing as well as the Postal Traffic, of Officers and Men held Prisoners of War in Germany, 28 February, 1915, The National Archives, UK [TNA] FO 383/40.
8. Wilkinson, British Prisoners of War, 25, 65.
9. Gerard, My Four Years, 162, 175; and Wilkinson, British Prisoners of War, 47−9.
10. Hansard HL Deb 31 May 1916 vol 22 cc249−68; and Hansard HL Deb 15 March 1915 vol 18 cc745−58.
11. Military Postal Service Decree No. 42, Postal Communication to and from Prisoners of War, 28 September 1914, TNA FO 383/19; General Post Office. Communication With Prisoners of War Interned Abroad. Postmasters No. 559, 1915, TNA FO 383/20.
12. Note Verbale, from German Imperial Government, 30 August, 1915, TNA FO 383/20; Letter from B.B. Cubitt, to the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 10 October 1915, TNA FO 383/20. On parcels in UK camps see Panayi, Prisoners of Britain, 144−5.
13. Jones, “A Missing Paradigm?”, 42; Stibbe, “Civilian Internment,” 73.
14. Letter to the FO from the British Division, Spanish Embassy, Vienna, 23 February 1918 TNA FO 383/359; Letter from Robert Vansittart to Secretary, Army Council, 25 March 1918 TNA FO 383/359.
15. Notebook, Private Papers of E.L. Wright, Imperial War Museum, London [IWM].
16. Testimony of Pte P. Hobin, Testimony of Pte. E. Henderson, Testimony of Pte. R. Dusenburg, Extracts from Report Given By Pte. E.L.Weatherhead, Testimony of Sergeant John Bryce, TNA FO 383/300.
17. Minutes on Present Conditions at Ruhleben, 10 June 1916, TNA FO 383/141.
18. Letter from A. Law to Secretary to the Post Office, 29 October 1915, TNA FO 383/20; Communique: British Prisoners of War, War Office, 11 January 1915, TNA FO 383/47; Copy of Notice in the Post Office Circular 26 October 1915, TNA FO 383/20; Letter from W.J. Thomas to Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 31 July 1916, TNA FO 383/206.
19. Press Bureau, 28 March 1915, TNA FO 383/47; Letter from Horace Rumbold to Swettenham, 18 May 1915, TNA FO 383/19.
20. Miscellaneous No.18 (1916), 3.; Memorandum from POWHC to Foreign Office, 9 June 1916, TNA FO 383/141; Copy of Letter from Cecil Aman to Prisoners of War Aid Society, 27 April 1916, TNA FO 383/141; Letter from John Bradbury to the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 28 August 1915, TNA FO 383/44; Letter to the Secretary of the Treasury from R.H. Brade, 9 August 1915, TNA FO 383/43.
21. General Post Office. Communication With Prisoners of War Interned Abroad. Postmasters No. 559, 1915, TNA FO 383/20; POWHC, Directions for Packing and Despatch of Parcels to Prisoners of War and Suggestions as to the most Useful Articles to Send, August 1916, TNA FO 383/157; Letter from B.W. Young to Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 27 May 1915, TNA FO 383/42.
22. POWHC, Directions for Packing and Despatch of Parcels to Prisoners of War and Suggestions as to the most Useful Articles to Send, August 1916, TNA FO 383/157; Powell and Gribble, History of Ruhleben, 11, 18.
23. Letter from George Payne to Sir Horace Rumbold, 26 June 1916, TNA FO 383/193. On the blockade see Vincent, Politics of Hunger and Davis, Home Fires Burning.
24. Letter from Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to US Ambassador 2 July 1915, TNA FO 383/42; Letter from B.W. Young to Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 26 June 1915, TNA FO 383/42.
25. Report on Investigation Regarding Parcels Sent to Prisoners of War, TNA FO 383/157.
26. Relief in Kind Committee. Foodstuffs, c. October 1916, TNA FO 383/314.
27. Letter to George Payne from Horace Rumbold, 30 June 1916, TNA FO 383/193.
28. Letter from Sir Arthur Stanley to Sir Maurice de Bunsen, 13 June 1916, TNA FO 383/193.
29. Jones, Violence Against Prisoners, 264.
30. Paul Dunau, “The English in Ruhleben,” Vessische Zeitung 31 July 1916 in TNA FO 383/142.
31. Hoffman, In the Prison Camps, 67−8.
32. Relief of British Prisoners of War. (For Publication on Saturday morning, October 21st, 1916), TNA FO 383/349.
33. Miscellaneous No.18 (1916), 7.
34. Miscellaneous No.18 (1916), 12; Letter from Edward Grey to Mr. Page, 20 May 1916, TNA FO 383/140; Minute from G.R.W., 15 May [1916], TNA FO 383/140.
35. Minutes re: Taylor’s Report from H.B., 15 May 1916, TNA FO 383/140; Memorandum from POWHC to Foreign Office, 9 June 1916, TNA FO 383/141.
36. Letter to Lord Newton from Edith Grant Duff, 6 June 1916, TNA FO 383/193; Letter from Sir Arthur Stanley to Sir Maurice de Bunsen, 13 June 1916, TNA FO 383/193; Letter to Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from Sir Arthur Stanley, 13 June 1916, TNA FO 383/193.
37. Report on Investigation Regarding Parcels Sent to Prisoners of War, TNA FO 383/157; Report of the Joint Committee Appointed to Enquire into the Organisation and Methods of the CPOWC, 20 June 1917, TNA FO 383/352.
38. Report on Investigation Regarding Parcels Sent to Prisoners of War, TNA FO 383/157.
39. Letter from B.B. Cubitt to Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 3 June 1916, TNA FO 383/193; Letter from Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to Philip Witham, 12 June 1916, TNA FO 383/193.
40. See note 38 above.
41. Letter from H. E. Belfield to Horace Rumbold, 8 July, 1916, TNA FO 383/193.
42. See note 38 above.
43. Foreign Office Minutes, July 1917, TNA FO 383/352.
44. Letter from H. E. Belfield to Horace Rumbold, 8 July 1916, TNA FO 383/193; Foreign Office Minutes, July 1917, TNA FO 383/352.
45. See note 38 above.
46. Report of the Joint Committee Appointed to Enquire into the Organisation and Methods of the CPOWC, 20 June 1917, TNA FO 383/352; Report on Investigation Regarding Parcels Sent to Prisoners of War, TNA FO 383/157.
47. Klose, Emergence of Humanitarian Intervention; Gill, Calculating Compassion.
48. Cabanes, The Great War; Piller, “German Child Distress”; and Little, “Humanitarian Relief in Europe.”
49. Little, “Explosion of New Endeavours.”
50. Forms Issued in Connection with the Work of the CPOWC, 1917, TNA FO 383/352.
51. Jones, “International or Transnational?” 697−713.
52. Foreign Office Minutes, 9 February 1917, TNA FO 383/352.
53. Letter from G.R. Warner to Secretary, CPOWC, 14 February 1917, TNA FO 383/352; Letter from Lord Newton to H. Belfield, 2 May 1917, TNA FO 383/352.
54. Minutes of a Meeting Held 1 May 1917, TNA FO 383/355; Letter from P.D. Agnew to Secretary, POWD, 9 May 1917, TNA FO 383/299.
55. Letter from Secretary, POWD to George Bainton, 16 November 1917, TNA FO 383/314.
56. Report on the Directorate of Prisoners of War, 1920, 8, TNA HO 45/11025/410118.
57. Forms Issued in Connection with the Work of the CPOWC, 1917, TNA FO 383/352.
58. Conditions of which the CPOWC of the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St. John of Jerusalem in England may Authorise an Association to Pack and Despatch Parcels to British Prisoners of War, TNA FO 383/349; Report on Investigation Regarding Parcels Sent to Prisoners of War, TNA FO 383/157.
59. See note 57 above.
60. Handbook to the Work, Constitution, and Rules of the CPOWC, 1917, TNA FO 383/352.
61. Letter to Warner from W.H. Buckler, 18 September 1916, TNA FO 383/158.
62. See note 38 above.
63. See note 60 above.
64. CPOWC, Standard Parcels of Food, 21 September 1917, TNA FO 383/314.
65. Letter to the Secretary, POWD from P.D. Agnew, 15 March 1917, TNA FO 383/312; Letter to the Secretary, POWD from P.D. Agnew, 2 March 1917, TNA FO 383/312.
66. Minutes of a Conference held at the War Office 8 February, 1917 to consider the question of rations for Prisoners of War, and Parcels of Food received by Prisoners of War from friends in the United Kingdom in view of the recent recommendations of the Food Controller, TNA FO 383/295; Memo by Mr. Dresel, 15 March 1917, TNA FO 383/312; Extracts of Letters from British Prisoners of War in Austria, Germany, Bulgaria, and Switzerland, TNA FO 383/313; Memorandum for communication to the Netherland Minister (British Section) at Berlin from Foreign Office, 10 May 1917, TNA FO 383/313; To the British Legation, The Hague, from the Netherland Legation (British Section), Berlin, 3 July 1917, TNA FO 383/313; Ruhleben Camp c. July 1917, TNA FO 383/313.
67. Memorandum by the POWD on the Question of Reducing the Food Rations Despatched to Prisoners of War in Germany, 20 March 1917, TNA FO 383/354.
68. Notes on Food Stuffs sent to British Prisoners of War, 20 March 1917, TNA FO 383/354.
69. Memorandum by the POWD on the Question of Reducing the Food Rations Despatched to Prisoners of War in Germany, 20 March, 1917, TNA FO 383/354; Letter to P.D. Agnew from G.R. Warner, 16 February 1917, TNA FO 383/295/.
70. Circular from L. Impey, 24 April 1917 re: Food Parcels, TNA FO 383/352; Handbook to the Work, Constitution, and Rules of the CPOWC, 1917, TNA FO 383/352.
71. Stibbe, British Civilian Internees, 116.
72. Durbach, “Comforts, Clubs and the Casino”.
73. Miscellaneous. No.21 (1916), 2.
74. Postcard from A. Argent to Lady Victoria Herbert, 2 February 1917, TNA FO 383/352.
75. Testimony of John O’Brien, 8 June 1917, TNA FO 383/300.
76. Report of the Joint Committee Appointed to Enquire into the Organisation and Methods of the CPOWC, 20 June 1917, TNA FO 383/352; Letter from P.D. Agnew to Controller, POWD, 24 September 1917, TNA FO 383/355; Letter from Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to French Ambassador, 2 October 1917, TNA FO 383/355; Letter to the Secretary, POWD, from P.D. Agnew, 4 June 1917, TNA FO 383/313.
77. Letter from Hamid Ullee Meerza to Secretary of State for India, 30 May 1917, TNA FO 383/300.
78. Letter from Adelaide Livingstone to Secretary, POWD, 13 December 1916, TNA FO 383/161.
79. Adelaide Livingstone, Notes on Interviews with Ruhleben Prisoners Returned to this Country, 3 March 1917, TNA FO 383/312.
80. Extracts of Letters from British Prisoners of War in Austria, Germany, Bulgaria, and Switzerland, TNA FO 383/313.
81. Minute from R.G. Vansittart to Lord Newton re: Suggestion that certain class of Prisoners at Ruhleben should be treated as officers in regard to parcels, TNA FO 383/313.
82. Letter from George Bainton to A.J. Balfour, 3 November 1917, TNA FO 383/314.
83. Hansard HC Deb 20 December 1916 vol 88 cc1490−3W.
84. Letter from Jane Carrothers to Lord Newton, 28 October 1916, TNA FO 383/204.
85. Letter from Camilla Picton Warlow to Secretary, POWD, 4 December 1916, TNA FO 383/204.
86. Letter from George Bainton to Secretary, POWD, 24 November 1916, TNA FO 383/204; Letter from George Bainton to Lord Robert Cecil, 18 November 1916, TNA FO 383/204.
87. Wilkinson, British Prisoners of War, 228−58; Feltman, Stigma of Surrender, 76−90.
88. Ketchum, Ruhleben, 158, 309, 359.
89. Wilkinson, British Prisoners of War, 130, 242−58; Roper, Secret Battle, 9.
90. Francis Gribble, The Conditions at Ruhleben. A Memorandum for the Red Cross Society, TNA FO 383/69.
91. Feltman, Stigma of Surrender, 79−80.
92. Wilkinson, British Prisoners of War, 247−8.
93. Letter from A.L. Armstrong to Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 22 November 1916, TNA FO 383/204.
94. Letter from H. Higgins to D. Lloyd George, 24 February 1917, TNA FO 383/312.
95. Letter from George Bainton to Lord Robert Cecil, 18 November 1916, TNA FO 383/204; Letter from George Bainton to Secretary, POWD, 24 November 1916, TNA FO 383/204.
96. Tosh, “Gentlemanly Politeness”.
97. Stibbe, “Gendered Experiences,” 15.
98. Gill quoted in Stibbe, British Civilian Internees, 116.
99. Letter from Edith S. Strachan to Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 9 March 1917, TNA FO 383/312.
100. Quoted in Wilkinson, British Prisoners of War, 252.
101. See note 29 above.
102. See note 72 above.