SYDNEY MAN A PRISONER.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 55, 10 February 1916, Page 6

SYDNEY MAN A PRISONER.

) . ~*» " .■. MR A. D. MACLAREN'S WARNi INCS AND TREATMENT. One of those who can now say, "1 ■ told you so," is Mr A. D. Maclaren, I i whose .unfortunate experiences in a German concentration camp at Ruhle- ■ ben, near Bering were referred to in a letter to a Sydney friend recently. "No words can give you an idea of the i frightfulness of nay experiences," writes Mr Maclaren, who, as he truly .declared, had four years previous to the war "shouted'the truth from fchej housetops," as to what was coming as | the result of Prussian militarism. . Unfortunately for himself he "shout-, ed Horn brermany, ju nis capacity, as correspondent for. various British /newspapers, and it is more than possible that the "frightfulness" of his experience was duo to a desire for revenge on the part of'Prussianism. Mr Maclaren was born at Christchurch, N.Z., but afterwards lived for many years in Sydney. He was employed in the clerical branch of the Water and Sewerage Department, but later secured his B.A. } M.A'., and LL.B. degrees at Sydney University, and went to Germany in 1911 to follow tutorial and literary work. H (i was correspondent to several English papers, and also contributed articles to the Telegraph, forecasting .Germany's action in making a savage war as soon as she felt the time was ripe. | Writing from Leipzig to an oldj friend (Mr W. Grantham, of the Inspection Branch, G.P.Oji as far back as August a, 1912, Mr Maclaren said: "I am glad to see that the people of » England are beginning to take more interest in Australia and New Zealand, as those outlying portions of the Empire, with Canada, will be looked to in the near future to take a more important part in the responsibilities ' of the Empire; and they will have to do so or see the whole show broken up, and themselves with it. Events are moving here in a way to cause us all grave concern, especially as regards the tremendous naval preparations being made by Germany,'and the violent *' anti-British feeling that exists here. i; If the Colonies strive to keep out of ' any trouble into which Great Britain I will be drawn, if any aggressive anil ' unprovoked war is entered on by Gci-i*-many—which I consider certain—they |} will lose whatever democracy they joy. British institutions stand for ( ( free speech and liberty, things worth I having and fighting for." ( Mr Maclaren is now in London sen- ' ously ill, through the treatment meted out to him by his German custodians since the outbreak of the war until bis repatriation in November last. I