THE BRITISH AT RUHLEBEN.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16848, 31 May 1920, Page 8

THE BRITISH AT RUHLEBEN.

* CAMP CAPTAIN'S STOSY. ; 'raoii ocr own* rnnr.ESPo^E.vr.) LONDON. March 30. Doubtless there are many in the Dominion—in addition to the New Zen landers, who had the misfortune to be interned in Germany during the war —who will be interested to road "Tue History of Kuhicben," written by Joseph Powell (Captain of the Camp) and Francis Gribblo. It is the official record of British organisation in this prisoner camp, and tells of the scandalously inadequate arrangements nuidc by tiio Germans everything was about as bad as it possibly could be—and of the marvellous achievements which gradually were effected bv the grit, determined capacity, and ability of organisation possessed by the British prisoners themselves JLven by the summer of 191 ii, Count Schwerin (Commandant) said to an American visitor who had come with an introduction from the American Embassy: "xou must not suppese that the camp was always like this. When tlio men were iirsfc brought here, the place wasn t fit to keen pigs in. All that you have admired "in the camp they navo themselves created.'' | Tho book is very interestingly written, and, in the words of Mr Powell, it shows how "a number of Englishmen, raked in from German cities, dumped, in a swamn, and housed in stables, set to work to found a British colony and build a British city within a few miles of the enemy's capital." Ruhleben was used as a place of internment on a small scalo from the very beginning of the war, but its real and memorable history started on November 6th, 1914, with the issue of tho decree that all male British subjects—except clergymen, cioctors, lunatics, and bedridden invalids, between the ages of 17 and oo —and all British officers of whatever age, whether on the active or tho ! retired lists, should be arrested and taken to the internment camp, which would bo selected for them. Those already at Sennelager remained there, but "tho majority streamed into Ruhleben by many roads from all parts of the country.* The largest of men present in this camp i* any one time was about 4400. The total number who passed through it was approximately SoOD. The place, as everyone knows, was a trotting racecourse. There were eleven stables, which served as barracks for tho prisoners, who were housed both in tho .horse-boxes and in the loft, and they had to sleep on the concrete floors, pn which an inadequate provision of straw —not over-clean —was strewn. 'After an interval, straw sa'ks appeared, and plank beds with one blanket (usually a worn and dilapidated horsecloth). After a few days the prisoners were paraded and informed that each barrack would be required to elect an interpreter, fluent in both languages, to represent them in their relations with the authorities. The first Commandant, Count Schwerin, was a wealthy landed proprietor from Mecklenburg-Surelitz, a handsome old gentleman over 70, "who knew less than nothing about camp management and organisation. But ho had one fixed idea which, in the end, earned him golden opinions: that his function was not to bully prisoners, but to protect them." He referred to tho prisoners as his "children," and on more than one occasion he _ defended them against the of Berlin. And he threatened the War Office to withdraw from the post of Commandant if his "children" were deprived of the privilege of smoking. Tho main fault of Baron von Taivbe (c.ump officer) was his habit of listening to tittle-tattle, accepting it as truth and losing his temper over it. To him the British character was '"'a perpetual source of surprise. It amazed him to hear two football teams cheer each other after their match was over, on tho playing fields." Baron von Mutzenbecher (censor of correspondence) was always popular— possibly that accounted for his removal before the end of the war. Ono of his remarks, at the close of a hotly-contest-ed football match, endeared him to all who heard it: "When I see how you plav football, I quito understand how it was that wo failed to beat the 'contemptible little army.'" ' > J Rittmeister von Brqcken (AssistantCommandant for a while)-made a good, impression. When' he said "No," ho meant no. When he said "Yes," ho meant yes. With him a promise was a promise, and would be kept. "And it 18 not often that one can say that of. one's dealings with a Prussian officer," says Mr Powell. After the first visit of the American Ambassador in March, 1915, the process of camp reform received official encouragement, but it was September, 1915, before Count Schwerin sent for Mr Powell. and told him that the 150 German soldiers connected with the camp were more troublesome than 'all his 4000 prisoners, who were most orderly when left alone. Tho outcome was that tho Ruhleben prisoners constituted a really self-governing community, and gradually their camp "became really a "bit of England—a small British colony planted in the heart of tho enemy's country." Tho German Government fulfilled its obligation to feed its civilian prisoners by making a contract with an unconscionablo knave, and the prisoners wrote to England for bread. On deI livery it left much to bo desired. The German authorities refused to supply j flour or to allow the camp to have a bakehouse —there was German bread they said; take it or leave it. Generally it wes left. Later, bread arrived from Switzerland and Denmark, but th«! Swiss bread did not gi7o satisfaction,! becauso it was very hard and full of holes. The Danish bread, on the other hand, baked in Copenhagen from flour supplied from England, under the aus- ! pices of the British Red Cross, was excellent, in quality and ample in quantity. •The pictures of tho medical arrangements—or, rather, tho lack of thenT— j make harrowing reading. The first military surgeon was "of the most ! brutal typo, disposed to scamp his work, and treat every nations as a I malingerer," while a '"mob of patients" [ used to be admitted simultaneously,

and no man, however intimato his conplaint, had any chance of confidential treatment.

I At this interval of time it is worth ; while to pass over all tho callous treat- ; mer.t and lack of arrangements, and to read what wonderful things the prisonel's did for themselves, when they were thoroughly organised, in tho war oT educational classes, recreation, atliieue meetings, dramatic and musical socic- | ties. They had a circulating librarv. a horticultural society, with flower i shows. A growing border of shrubs hid from view the barbed wire, ana by | the time Ruhleben had been transformed into a well-ordered British colony, it had a big department store, witli its own electric-lighting plant; its canteens were run on sound business lines, and at, a good profit. As Germany greir poorer, the camp became richer, and the colonists there were far better fed than tho gaolers, who sometimes fawned on them for food, and sometimes tried to steal. At the beginning, savs Mr Powell, most of tho German soldiers couid bo persuaded to do most things for money. Towards the end any of them would do almost anything for a pot of dripping. Tho kitchen garden was not the least useful of the camp undertakings. Fresh vegetables wero there on sale at nominal prices, at times when the Berlin housewives were jostling each other for the privilege of buying thorn at exorbitant prices in the greengrocers' shops. There was a .potting shed, and a glasshouse. with steam-heating supplied from a. boiler—the whole house and heating installation being put up by our own men—and it produced a wonderful crop of melons 1 , and tomatoes.

I/ater the Revolution came and tho Sojdiers' Committee asked tho Ruhlehen prisoners to civo them a red flan-. This was supplied by the "Woollen and Worsted Society's dyeing class; they dipped :i tabledoth red, and presented it to tl>« Council.