SOME OF THE GUESTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 July 1920, Page 7

SOME OF THE GUESTS.

Hans Jungling, the captain (>f the Grief, which was sunk in the North Sea by H.M.S. Alcantara, was there, and Gunther Pluschow, who later escaped to Germany and wrote a lavoraMe report oi his experiences at Doningtor., also spent some time behind the barbedwire. Pluschow was an old hand at, escaping. He evaded the Japanese at Kaiauchow by aeroplane, but was later taken by the British at Gibralter. Then there was John Ross, who commanded the Blucher until she decided to explore the bottom of the North Sea, and Franz Bintenlen, a most important individual, who was the Raiser's confjdential agent in America, and was actively engaged in fomenting trouble in that country and in Mexico until captured at Falmouth when returning to Germany on a forged passport. He was supposed to be enormously wealthy in his own country, and was reckoned one of the Kaiser's most intimate advisers, lidgar Von Spiegel, whose full name is about two lines long and who was a. U-boat officer, also put in some time here. If further proof of his high birth, besides the length of his name, is required, it is said that he was a relative of practically every noble in Germany. On his capture by 'a "mystery" ship lit! haughtily announced himself as the commander of the submarine which took Sir Roger Casement on his historic little jaunt over to Ireland. ,

Karl Spindler, who was captured at Queenatown Bay whilst running guns to that same country, was another prisoner who esoaped. However, 'he waa less lucky than the practised Pluschow, and was recaptured later. He was a great exponent of courage (in the other fellow), and heroically blew his ship up when about to be recaptured, having previously taken elaborate precautions as to his own speedy transference to the comparative comforts of an internment camp. • Other guests included Admiral Von Reuter, who was responsible for the scuttling of the German fleet at Scapa Flow, Friedrich Von Bulow, a brother of the German Chancellor, and Krupp'? English agent, and Joachim Breithaupt, commander of the Zepplin Lls, which crashed in flames at the mouth of the Thames in 1916. STUCK IN THE CHANNEL. Finally, there was Otto Thelen, another adept at escaping, who got out of every camp he was interred in, including Donnington Hall and Chelmsford Gaol. However, as he was invariably recaptured, it became more of a hobby with him than anything else. ' Escapes, considering the number of prisoners, were remarkably few —but they were in all cases cleverlj r planned and well executed. * Perhaps the most adroit was that whereby about. 29 prisoners managed to get from Kegsworth, a town six miles from Donington, by means of a tunnel.

Among thftm was our old friend Cantain von Muller, of the Emden, who had the misfortune to stick in the tunnel in a most undignified jiosition, until excavated by disgusted comrades. His liberty was short-Jived, as he was recaptured within eight hours of the escape.'

On another occasion a youthful officer was found escaping through the wire entanglements; he later explained that the attempt was the result of a be''. It was certainly a hazard. Pluschow's escape was never properly fathomed, and lie is 'one of .the lucky few who got back to Germany. He disappeared with a companion name;J Treffts during a thuadgrjtera in 101S,

and, although Treffta was discovered at Millwall Cocks the next day, Pluschow vanished into thin air, and was latar said to have turned up in the land of his birth. ■There were many unsuccessful attempts to break through the wire, nearly all, of them impromptu affairs; but a more ambitious scheme was trie! wlien a bridge of cigffr boxes was thrown across the entanglements. The attempt \ffes a vain one owiijg to the vigilance of the guards. These numbered about 190, as against over 400 prisoners. The barbed wire works, on which much reliance was placed in most camps as a means of keeping the prisoners in, was from 12ft to 20ft in depth, and breast-high, with a 9ft. barbed wire fence on either side, side. At night there was always a zone of electric light around the entanglement area. * "COURT OF HONOR." The officers had a court of honor of their own, in which they tried any personal disputes or quarrels, and there were cases when two officers, having quarrelled, issued challenges to duels, to be fought after they were liberated. Some of them, of course, were oppressed with a sense of their own importance, but this is normal in a Prussian officer. One day a senior officer came to my room and, saluting most punetiously, said that, although the doctor had examined him and found him fit, the fact was he was ill, and hence, by the Geneva Convention, was entitled to more food. He suggested, apiong other things, that he should be allowed Jib of fresh meat, four new laid eggs, and Jib of butter daily as a start. Needless to say, there' was "nothing doing," and I am afraid he must have left the office with his faith in the Geneva Convention badly shattered. Still, it may merely have been a phase of Teutonic humor.

There was another semi-divine person, a short, elderly, and very stout battalion commander, who informer me, on being released, that he could not manage the two-mile walk to the railway station, with his hand luggage unless he had' a conveyance. I told him sympathetically that, as no "conveyance" was available, he would have to delay his departure to Germany; and it was wonderful how quickly he changed his mind. A few hours later I arrived at ths station to see a very hot and very subdued little man, climb into his compartment. •

"MY HOME."

The one Turk in the camp, however, was a very, quiet, meek man. His name was Hakki Bey, and for special reason; he was allowed by the War Office to go up to London on his parole to return by a certain hour. Coming home, his Taiiway carriage was very crowded, and he was unable to get out at the right station. He alighted at the next in a terrible state, and walked hurriedly to Donington, arriving late, however, and finding .the gates closed, he called out to the sentry in a great panic, and posI sibly with visions of a firing party traversing his mind; but the guard, not recognising him, refused to let him enter. Almost in tears he cried, "But you igust let me in—it is *my home. It is my home!" It was not until the Turk was on the verge of collapse that the sentry rang up the office and learnt that Donington was indeed his home. Donington has been closed for some time now, and its prisoners have long since returned, goodness knows where: yet there are tnany German officers who will not easily forget the Ibig grey building, and the long days they spent there. They may feel lucky that their memories are not as bitter as those of Allied prisoners in Ruhleben.