ARMY DOCTORS' ADVENTURES THEIR PRIVATIONS IN GERMANY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 57, 9 March 1915, Page 7

ARMY DOCTORS' ADVENTURES THEIR PRIVATIONS IN GERMANY

DRAWING LOTS FOR RELEASE. {PROM OUa OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, 19th January. Five British Army doctor* have just reached home after several months spent in captivity in Germany. They ar© : Captain C. E. Edmunds, R.A.M.C., at* tached to the Royal Scots Fusiliers; Captain E. S. B. Hamilton, R.A.M.C., 7th Field Ambulance Corps; Lieutenant W. S. Danks, R.A.M.C., 14th Field Ambulance Corps ; Dr. L. J. Austin and Dr. A. R. Elliott, Ist Belgian Unit, British Red Cross Society. , Captain Edmunds and Captain Hamil* ton were left behind attending to the British wounded when our Army retired from Mdns on 1 23 rd August. " For a fortnight after being taken prisoner,' 1 Captain Hamilton said, " I was engaged attending the wounded, British and Belgians, and afterwards the Germans. When my work was done I fully expected to be sent back to the British lines, never thinking that the Germans would keep British Army doctors as prisoners of war." This expectation, however, was not realised, for without warninghe was told to take his place in a. train, together with other doctors, and then begin his journey into captivity. NO FOOD FOR ENGLISH SWINE. " We occupied four days in reaching Torgau, where we were first interned," he continued, "and for three of the four days we bad nothing to eat or drink. At several stations where the people were plying the German troops on their way to the front' with food and coffee I asked for water and food, but the only reply I ever received was that there was nothing for the English swine. " The crowds were hostile, and often men came up to our carriage and pushed the muzzles of their revolvers in our faces. One excitable old lady struck me across the head with' her umbrella." At Torgau they found themselves, in the company of two hundred British and eight hundred French officers. There they remained about three months, having a very dull time. Forced to be up at 8 o'clock each morniftg, they spent the whole day in idleness, for nothing was provided for them •to do. Their food consisted chiefly of sausages and pork, with bread and margarine, but even of that there was only a 'limited supply. "At first," remarked Captain Hamilton, "we were allowed a hundred marks a month for the purpose of buying anything we required, but afterwards that sum was reduced to 6d a day." Questioned a« to communications with friends at home, the Captain replied that after about the first month they began to receive' letters, and occasion* ally parcels, from friends and relatives, bu f many of the parcels never reached them. DRAWING LOTS. Early in December they were removed to Magdeburg, where there were eight othei doctors. Last Friday they were told they were to be released ; then the order came to release only five, and, according to special instructions from Berlin, two of the five had to be th*. Austin and Elliott. The question then arose as to who were to be the other three. AUer discussion, Captain Hamilton, as the only married officer, was givon the

third place. The Commandant himself I settled the question of the other vho. f Taking seven matches, he broke two off | short, and holding them out, the seven j doctors each drew. The lucky one« in | the draw proved to be Coptam Edmunds 1 and Lieutenant Danks. both of whom \ avowed their solemn determination to | have those fateful bits of wood mounted f in gold, to be ever cherished as souve* nil's of their great adventure. Drs. Austin and Elliott were among the fir.it to go out under the auspices of the British Red Cross Society, and they had only been on Belgian soil two days when they fell into the hands of the Germapß. were motoring vitli the Commissioner for the South-Eaelei it Division of Belgium, and when some fifteen miles from Namur. where ihoy were to have established a hospital, they found themselves in the very thick of the German army. IN COLOGNE. Escape was impossible, and tliey > found themselves under •> grave suspicion as spies. The place of their capture was Haverlange, and almost immediately they were tried as spies. They escaped.' shooting, but were sent along to Cologne, where they had a very uncomfortable time. Dr. Austin said that the mounted police saved him in Cologne from falling into the hands of a furious crowd. Dr. Elliott and he were then given fifteen days' solitary confinement, not even being allowed a book to read. Then came a Beries of retrials on the charge oi espionage, but an examination in medicine and surgery gave sufficient proof that they were both doctors, and finally they were sent to Torgau. Dr. Austin doscribed the Cologne people as the most insolent and insulting 01 all the Germans. •