A NEW ZEALAND TROOPER.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 18, 21 January 1916, Page 6

A NEW ZEALAND TROOPER.

PRISONER ISj SOUTH AFRICA. Tlie following letter, dated Middelburg, Cape, South Africa, has just been Tβ- . ceived by a Te Aroha friend from an Auckland trooper: "You will have thought you were never to hear from > mc, but after reading my.experiences for the past year, you will understand why. I did not write. Well, ac war was expected out here againet German West \frica, volunteers" were required for «' Maxim gun training; I was one to vol-1| •unteer, and left home on 24fch August, 1914, and after three weeks' training, waa paeeed out. Our gun eection (» . land Horse), together with a section from the Cape Light Horse, were.then;.j; attached to Lieut-Colonel .Mantes I I column. We started, for the front late lin September, but when, we .were 90 imife' 1 ff»m E ,the-b6faeßxCpljMiiel .Mantz would riot" go any furtlwr. On the 7tn October he called the,; Maxim, section v over, and told us fee wanted to have.;; la chat with us; He-said it was un-;v j necessary to bring our anna with us.:; iWhen we arrived at the camp we wet* i marched to a square formed by hie men, 'and immediately "we were, in his. troopJ* closed up the place where we came iti . ■He then made a epeech, which. I cannot t repeat, but it was to the effect tnat.he ; ! was not going over the German border, •ibut would' turn , against our Govern- : iment. He gave us the option-of joining 'him, but when we would *ot do so, .wd 'were taken prisoners, and we were handed over to the Germans, on the . morning of the 10th, so you ccc ThaVe .. been a prisoner in the Germane , hande since then. We were, however, released by our men on 6th July, and that country :.• ie now British South West .- daresay when I tell you how we *«•:; fered ■as German praonere, you'.vlike*;- , many others, would perhaps not believe , mc. "We paid dearly for being loyal to the colours, but I would rather ... go i through it again than turn rebel, anO. II certainly would rather be dead than..-; stand under a German flag, ac I have ; = seen that the German)) are still an >; uncivilised nation. You would, no doubt, be interested to hear what treatment we had as prisoners. The camp we were in only had two small buildings-one «. church and the other a missionary place. Thia could only hold, at the utmost, 1W ' people, yet we were over 300. During » ! storm all our blankete were soaked W rain, and that night over 200 prisoner* had to sleep outside with tbjiir, wet iblankete on the wet. earth/ Alth#ugh the Germans had tone of clothes, none were given to us, and a few months later practically everyone was walking about> without clothes. . All we had was > g ehirt, no boots, and the majority *«§ without hats. The. following ie the foo» we were rationed out with for a day: Two spoons of mealie meal, two spoons of flour, one and a-half spoons of r««* eight ounces of meat with bone. Now 'just imagine a grown-up man living.on: that per day. I think the Germans art; the most cruel people I ever came across. iFrom thia account you may perhaps j gather how we suffered during the year, I although we have had fine times since. I getting back, for the people in Cap* iTowii gave us a great reception. TWs i people here in Middelburg make a terrible fuss of us. There were only 20 ot jus from here, and when we returned I saw a placard in a window bearing the telegram received after we were betrayed! by Maritz, with the heading: ' Our boys &Te loyal, , and .then followed all our names." ~-