BRITISH PRISONERS IN GERMANY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLV, Issue 3978, 10 July 1915, Page 8

BRITISH PRISONERS IN GERMANY.

SOME IMPROVEMENTS

EFFECTED

Our cables to-day tell of improved conditions at the internment camps for British civilians in Germany. Earcamps. Here is an American report of a visit made a little more than a. month ago. Doberts is the “show camp,” the others are not open for inspection. w Mr Gustav C. Reeder, the special correspondent of the “New York World,” describes a visit he paid to Doberitz Camp, near Spandau, where are some 4000 British prisoners of war. and the same number of French, and 500 Russians and Belgians. Mr Boeder observes: “It is true that the quarters of the prisoners are not of the very host, and cannot in any way he compared with first-class hotels or boarding-houses, hut the hospital wards are neat and clean. Prisoners on the sick list receive the very best treatment. The beds are all of iron painted a light- sky-blue, while each convalescent walking about the ward' wears clean slippers and a blue and white striped sick-room robe. The nurses are all in white duck uniforms, and there is an iron table at each bedside ”

Jn the huts and tents the prisoners sleep on the floor on straw-filled mattresses. They did not complain to Mr Boeder of the general treatment to which they are subjected by the German guards. Most of them still wore the regimental uniforms m which they wore captured. Mr Rocder remarks that the British uniforms are in a good state of preservation. The Russian uniforms are also in tolerable repair, but the clothing ot the French prisoners seemed to have gone to pieces faster than the others. STIFLING ATMOSPHERE.

Mr Reeder reports that the camp proper is divided into four blocks. Altogether there are 40 barracks and 10 tents 200 ft long by 75ft wide and 20ft high. Each of these is provided with good-sized windows and a floor covered with wood, and along each side are rolled mattresses. To eacn man is allotted a good-sized cotton blanket. Each tent has throe coal stoves, which burn day and night. The lighting is electric, and overhead are strung lines from which the men’s clothes are hung.to dry on wet days The air in there tents is stifling and unbearable at some points, ’ a s the Russians, according to the explanation made by the guards, refused to keep the windows open. Prisoners of different nationalities are mixed, seventy to each tent, so as to prevent them front plotting together. One kind of fooc] is cooked each day for all the prisoners, and as what one nationality likes is despised by another, there is considerable grumbling'. “ROTTEN. SIR.” Two wash and bath houses are allotted to each block of barracks. At the canteen the prisoners can buy canned goods of every description, including soups and sardines. Upon leaving the canteen the “New York World” correspondent met two well-built, fine-looking British sailors whose caps bore the letters H.M.S. Victory. They had been captured at Antwerp.

“How do they treat you here?” asked the correspondent. •'Aye-aye sir,” replied one of the tars, saluting, “rotten. sir, thanks for the kind enquiry: rotten, sir,”

’ The speaker was William Bmstead, chief quartermaster, from the Isle of Wight. Binstead was asked to give

details of the treatment to which he end his comrades were subjects. “Well, sir,” he replied, “the food is simply awful: I would not mind the steam and stew again so much if they would not make us eat the beastly black bread. They call it war bread.” “And we positively decline to talk their language, though we understand some,” interrupted the quartermaster’s companion, who announced, “Just an ordinary A. 8., sir, that’s all.” 'Hie A.B. added : “We have to buy our jam. But for the money sent us

from home we should have starved to death long ago.” The conversation was brought to a standstill by another prisoner, whe observed, according to Mr Roeder’s version, “Our hall game must ho finished before supper at six.”

[Mr Roeder must have misunderstood the British sailor unless he has recorded the word “ball” for “football.” “Ball” is the American term"

for baseball.] After visiting a tent, where many Russians sleep, the correspondent encountered a handsome, powerful-look-ing British prisoner. “I’m a sergeant in the Royal Marines,” he announced. “My name is Fullilove. 1 belong to the Portsmouth division; so do my mates, who were captured with me. ’

“How much have you gained in weight since you came here?” was Mr Roeder’s question. “I am :?!ad to say.” returned Fullilovo, “that 1 Have not lost any weight, but. Heaven knows where I’d be if my good folk at home had not sent me home-made food and money. Thev have saved me from starvation.”