Economic Assets

Last week, 2 1/2 years after World War II, more than 2,500,000 prisoners were still in custody. From the icy steppes of Siberia to the foggy downs of England, the P.O.W. was laboring in the fields, mines and industry. The victorious powers (with the exception of the U.S.) were in no hurry to send them home; for the P.O.W. had become a major economic asset to his captors.

Nations holding P.O.W.s at year's end were:

Russia, 1,712,000 (822,000 of them Japanese); France, 383,000; Great Britain, 257,000; Yugoslavia, 90,000; Poland, 50,000; Czechoslovakia, 10,000.

Britain expected to repatriate all prisoners by the end of next summer, France by December. Both countries, however, hoped to induce Germans to remain as "civilian" workers. Some 85,000 P.O.W.s have already signed contracts to stay for at least a year in France, another 35,000 have applied.

"If Only for Politeness." The French have assimilated P.O.W.s more readily than the British. Though many were entertained in British homes over Christmas, there was still considerable resentment throughout the country. London girl "clippies" (bus conductresses) have been refusing to take prisoners when there is a queue of Britons waiting. When football clubs were asked to allow prisoners in to see the games, many agreed; the Millwall Club said: ". . . With loathing and detestation we absolutely refuse."

In France, the story was different. Cabled a TIME correspondent after visiting a Paris diesel factory: "They [the P.O.W.s] looked exactly like the French workers next to them. Many wore berets, had cigarette butts sticking to their upper lips just like the French workers; even the movements and gestures seemed to be Latin, and had lost the German rigidity. There was not a single example of a Prussian haircut,. . . two of them were even exaggerating the fashion of Parisian youngsters and wore their hair so long that they had to pin it back with a long buckle. Said one of them: 'You have to adapt yourself to the customs of your hosts, if only for politeness.' "

Address Unknown. Little was known about the prisoners in Russia and her satellites, Yugoslavia, Poland and Czechoslovakia. Moscow last week announced that German prisoners in Russia were being repatriated at the rate of 9,000 a week, but did not give the exact number still held. Said one German prisoner's wife last week: "My letters to Russian officials in Berlin and Moscow remain unanswered. I think they do not know themselves whom they have, and do not wish to admit it."

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