THE MYSTERY CAMP.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 July 1920, Page 7

THE MYSTERY CAMP.

DONINGTON HALL GERMANS. SOME NOTORIOUS GUESTS. The secrets of England's most famous prisoner-of-war camp, Donington Hall, were jealously preserved during the war—and even since have obtained little publicity. Lieutenantcolonel Nunneley, who was commandant of that camp during the latter part of tHe war, and who is on tour in Australia, has written, specially for the Sydney. Sun the following intimate account of its "guests". To moßt colonials who passed through London in 1916, the mention of "Donington Hall" brings puzzled memories of vaudeville patter, of newspaper articles, and of house agents' monologues. According to the rosy-nosed comedian, appearing in a miniature straw hat and plaid trouseTs at the end of the second act, Donington Hall was a secluded retreat, peopled by over-fed gourmets and stocked with the choicest fare which England could provjde. It was an abode of milk and lion'ey in a starving land—a place where rationing was unknown and food coupons curiosities.

The house agent had larger ideas, and rated it as another Buckingham Palace, reserved from the clutch of homeless thousands for a few desirable tenants, on more than gratuitous terms. The newspapers denounced it in sulphurous leaders, and muttered darkly of reprisals And to the man in the street it was a mysterious institution, somewhere in lesser-known England, which was always being mentioned and never discussed. A MODEL CAMP. Those who ruled at Donington took considerable care that it was not discussed. Publicity was never the army's strong point, and where publicity meant possibly the escape of German prisoners and certainly a revival of espionage methods, it was discountenanced So long as the war continued.

For Donington Hall was a concentration centre for German prisoners of war. Behind its encircling harbed-wire entanglements were hundreds of enemy officers, waiting stolidly for either the end of the war or a chance of escape. They were a very genteel lot, all of them cultured in the Prussian fashion, most of them of means, of birth, and political consequence, and some few of even international importance. For this reason there was practicably none of the class friction experienced at Australian concentration camps. Blackmail, and gullying, such as existed at Liverpool, were unknown—simply because it was exclusively a camp of officers, who, if sometimes of criminal tendencies, at any rate had enough politeness to preserve a civil front to each other.

I came to Donington towards the end of 1918, and remainea'untii it was closed at the end of 1911). 4) year's stiy at the Hall under military conditions provided me with many incidents unite taboo during the years of war. Those in 'charge kept a kind of catalogue of their flock; and this at parts reads like an extract from the Index to fintlia. There were many prisoners who had oxciting memories of their war up till the time of capture to brood upon, and from which to draw mora'.s if they felt so inclined; and a record of their history was kept in the same index, so that altogether it forms an enaudal*