A PRISONER IN GERMANY.

Taihape Daily Times, 11 March 1919, Page 4

A PRISONER IN GERMANY.

TAIHAPE BOY : S EXPERIENCES',

We arc pleased to welcome !back to Taihape Mr F. MeSweeney, who for a number of years was in the employ of Mr S. Peyton. Private "McSweeney went away with the 25th Reinforcements, and after about seven weeks in England he left for France, being wounded in the Pasehendaele offensive on October 17th land taken | prisoner. After passing through a j couple of clearing stations at the rear j of the line he was taken to the j Braunschwig hospital, where the medi- j cal attention was very poor and the j food consisting of at 7.30 a small I mug of black coffee, a small roll of j bread; .30. slice of brown bread and j a piece of white or black saus'jge, or a substitute for jam, relieved occasionally by porridge made of husks. The mid-day meal consisted of soup ■cf \x very poor quality, with potatoes in it, inferior vegetables, with a little meat; 3.30, small mug black coffee, half a roll; 6.30, bowl of soup very thin and of little nourishment, slice of bread; and on Sunday night no soup, two slices of bread, one piece with a thin layer of butter. The hospital contained about 12 British patients, the rest being Russian and French, and the seriously wounded. The patients had to depend on the Russian prisoners for attention. The dressing bandages were made mostly of paper. Private MeSweeney was transferred to Hamelen Hospital, where he remained for six months, the treatment and food being .much the same, but parcels then began to arrive and the prisoners were able to live without depending on the food supplied by the Huns. Private Me-,<v.-eeney then left Hamoien being sent, ;:; Switzerland with several other | prisoners to be interned, arriving there on September Ist. There the prisoners were well {treated, except that the doctor's (attention was not 'up to the Allied standard. While he was in Switzerland the armistice was signed and Private MeSweeney was transferred *,o England, where he received treatment in the Second London General Hospital and tat the Waltham on the Thames Hospital. He left England on the loth January on tho Zealandic, arriving In New Zealand on February 26th.