THE FAMOUS ESCAPE OF THE 29.

Lieutenant John Keith Bousfield, M.C., Royal Engineers, one of the famous 29 officers who escaped from a prison camp in Germany, by means of .a tunnel,, the construction of which occupied nine months, is now safe at home. It .is believed that 10 of the other officers, including.a, lieu-tenant-colonel, have reached England, in spite of the enemy's offer of substantial rewards for the recapture of each runaway. . , The King was deeply interested. m the story of the escape of Lieutenant Bousfield, when he recently attended at Windsor to receive from his Majesty the Military Cross which he had won for dangerous reconnaissance work in the Somme battle of 1916. "It is believed that not more than one of the party who started the construction of the tunnel was among the 29 who made their escape through it," said Lieutenant Bousfield to me last night when seen at the home of his father at Hendon, Mr W. R. Bousfield, K.C. "When I got to the camp at Holzminden the work of digging the tunnel had been well started. Wnen we had finished it was fairly deep, running over a length of 65 yards, and abut 12 feet down, with an entrance under a staircase, and an outlet into a vegetable garden. "We made our escape on the night of July 23, and immediately on getting out broke into small groups, each of which took a different direction. I and two others formed one party, which kept together until, we had covered the greater part of 170 miles, which was the/distance I travelled before getting clear. of Germany. We each had a little store of food to keep us going, and we picked apples, making our way through downpours of rain, and sleeping most of the nights in the open air, or wherever we could find shelter of any kind. "Altogether, I was on my travels for 13 nights, sometimes going through water, sometimes venturing on the roads, but all the time, you may be sure, making certain of clearing any possible surprises or observation by local people or police'. "Everything -went well until nearly the end of our journey, but one night a sentry who had seen us from a bridge, or _ had seen something that made him suspicious, fired his rifle in our direction, compelling us .to separate. • I didn't see the other two again. "My movements were not, after this, detected by any of the enemy, . and I was able to set across the border without further accident. The Dutch subsequently announced that three British officers i had escaped across the frontier. "I had been on active service since -1915 on; the West front, and I was,taken prisoner in the early-part of 1917, when I was acting as observer "in a flying machine, which was brought" down about 2Q miles behind the German lines. I was interned successively at .Carlsruhe, -Grefeld-,' Strohen,, and, later, at H'olzminden. ■ ■; "I had -twice before attempted escapes, and on each occasion was collared again before I had got very far." <