A DARING FEAT

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2524, 27 July 1915, Page 5

A DARING FEAT

ESCAPE PROM-.DURANCE Vl£B TWO BRITISHERS REACH HOL LAND. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright Amsterdam, July 25. Mr. Geoffrey Tyke, a war correspondent, and Mr. Edward Falk, a civilian, from the Ruhleben detentioncamp, and aftor an arduous tramp at uiglits, readied the Dutch frontier. They were arrested on suspicion as smugglers, but wore ieleased. MR, PYKE'S STORY. - • DARING SOHEME BOLDLY ' ACHIEVED. (Rec. July. 2C, 9.45 p.m.), Amsterdam, July 28,* Mr. Pyke relates that he penetrated to Berlin in September last, and after his arrest was kept in a small cell for sixteen weeks, until his mind and spirit almost gave way. The police doctor refused to examine bim when suffering from the effccts of blood-poisoning and the food lie had to eat. Afterwards he was removed to the Ruhleben internment camp, where three hundred slept in ono hayloft. Here he nearly died of pneumonia; he received no medical attention, and suffered repeated illnesses from February, till June. . i. Falk, who was a Nigerian official, sug- 1 gested the escape. They spent fchreo months in perfecting their plans, which, out of respect for the camp commandant's feelings he will not reveal. They escaped in broad'daylight, in. the afternoon of July 9, passing through a. cordon of sentries, and four barbed wire fences. They spent the night at an'adjoining sandpit, and entered Berlin next morniug, obtained their first good meal for months, and purchased an outfit for a walking tour in the Hartz Mountains. Then they took train to Belefeld, and tramped the rest of the way across . country at night time, by the aid of a, luminous compass, passing over fields of barbed wire and through dense forests, drenched to the skin every day by the heavy rains. They stole turnips, beets, and potatoes from the fields. On one occasion they walked through a powder factory, unchallenged by, tha sleepy Landstunners. When within SO miles of the frontier they found themselves in the centre of th e ■ German cavalry. v They lo6t themselves on the night of July 22 in a peat bog, while hiding. Next day, within a mile of the frontier, an armed guard surprised them, audi turned out the Dutch frontier guard, who took them for smugglers..