May 10, 1920
Dear Miss Addams:
We have been rather baffled in how to handle the question of war prisoners, as Mr. Lasker felt that much of the material reaching us was vague and perhaps unreliable, and most of it months out of date before reaching here.
We have this last week, however, been able to make a fortunate arrangement. Mr. W. W. Husband, whom you will perhaps recall for his work on the U.S. Immigration Commission several years ago, was in Switzerland during the war in charge of the State Department's handling of American war prisoners. Later he went on into Germany during the first part of the armistice period. He is socially minded, liberal and has made something of a study of the subject. We have asked him to prepare an article covering the present situation so far as it can be learned from private sources, the Y.M.C.A. and the State Department, especially the persistence of Russian war prisoners in Germany and of various groups in Siberia; a brief history of the American experience with American prisoners and a concluding section on the generalizations growing out of what happened in this war with respect to war prisoners, which should be made the basis for international commitments under The Hague Tribunal or the League of Nations or by treaty.
If you have any later material or know of the existence of any in this country, will you let us know?
Sincerely,
Paul U Kellogg [signed]
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