PRISONER OF WAR

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 63, 11 September 1915, Page 5

PRISONER OF WAR

NEW ZEALANDER IN THE HANDS OF THE TURKS BEING WELL-TREATED IN CONSTANTINOPLE. (IT TIUQR4PH.— SPtCUL TO HI POST.) AUCKLAND, This Day. Evidence of the welfare of Private T. H. Burgess, tl6tht 16th Waikato Company, a prisoner of war in Constantinople, baa been received by his aunt, Mrs. R. Leitch, of Repinera, in a letter evidently dictated by him and written from Gulbase Hospital, Stamboul, on Ist July. A report that Private Burgess was a j prisoner in this hospital wae published ! on 12th July, and subsequently advice ! was received from the High Commis- ! sioner that, so far as could be ascertained, he was the only New Zealander captured by the Turks. The letter from Private Burgess euggeste that there are other British prisoners in the same hospital. According to official advice Private Burgess was wounded in the urn, back, and shoulder, and as the letter is not in his own handwriting it is feared he may have lost his arm. "No doubt you will be surprised to hear from me after such a long period of silence," Private Burgess says, " but you will understand it when I tell you .that I am a prisoner of war in Turkey. I was badly wounded by shell fire when we landed at the Dardanelles, and uave been in hospital here for over two months. I have also had an operation for appendicitis, but am glad to say that my wounds have all healed up, and J am getting stronger every day. " Since being captured I have been treated very well by both Turks and Germans, and the doctors at the hospital have patched me up splendidly.- There are aim two German nurses here, and j they are very good. One of them speak* | English quite well, and is always coming | in with chocolates and other nice thingsThe Americans have also been very good jto us. We often get visitors from their' Embassy, and they have fitted us up with all the things we require in the way of toilet necessities, etc. In future when you write please address all your letters to this hospital. I should also Bke you to send me a nice plum cake ff you can manage this." Mrs. Leitch has been assured by the Postal officials that parcels will probably reach Constantinople through neutral channels, and the plum cake for which the young soldier has asked will go forward by tbe next mail.