The str. Kifuku Maru reports from Tsingtao that on the 2nd instant she arrived at Tsingtao with the first batch of German prisoners to be repatriated. They called at Tsingtao apparently for household effects belonging to the former German residents. These will be shipped partly on the Kifuku Maru and the remainder on three other steamers that are calling at the port on the same conditions. Unmarried men are all being sent first, and the last ship will take the married men and their wives from Tsingtao. One German doctor remains at Tsingtao, the Japanese having allowed him to remain as there is a hospital there to which he is attached. The Kifuku Maru was to remain in port four days. All the wives and German residents flocked down to the wharf to see the prisoners, the latter not being allowed in the town, and gave them a German dinner, ete.
The prisoners of war who have been gathering in Kobe jor the past two or three days for repatriation by the Toyofuku Maru, says the "Japan Chronicle," have had to' possess their souls Patience a little longer, as, owing to the stormy weather, it has been impossible to work cargo. It is understood that the prisoners speak highly of the treatment they hav. received during their capri Their robust appearance has be the subject of remark, and it is remembered that some of them complained some time ago about the insufficiency of rations calculated on a Japanese scale. It is only fair to those concerned to state that this complaint was a perfectly valid one, though the Japanese Government could not be expected to treat enemy prisoners better than it treats its own soldiers. The hardship that would have been entailed was averted partly through the generosity of compatriots in Japan, and partly by gifts of their Government transmitted through the usual channels for the amelioration of prisoners.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.