PRISON CAMP IN FRANCE

Evening Star, Issue 23525, 14 March 1940, Page 2

PRISON CAMP IN FRANCE

FOOD IS EXCELLENT The French have requisitioned a disused factory in Northern. France,' well’ behind the- lines, as a detention plao* for the: first batch of Germans .captured on.the western front. There it nothing to indicate its real ■ purpose—■ no barbed wire or wateh towers, .ststeg the London ‘Sunday Times.’ ; The Germans kept; well;' employed. ; 1 In the kitchen one man in the fieldgrey uniform could be seen attending to potatoes, while another, was bustling about; the great, boilers in which the dinners were being prepared. •- V... The menu—for both the Frencn guards and the Germans —was splitpea soup, liver cooked in white wine,baked potatoes, stewed fruit, and «i ration of claret. -. ■ : . ■■ The camp commandant said that the German prisoners were big eaters, more interested in quantity than quality. > • - The one French guard in the kitchen’ knew the cook, a German, for they had both been Customs' officers at,the on the frontier.

In the factory the prisoners wer* hard at work building, bunks, and tables for large numbers of men—t® be ready for any sudden rush. ' They were under the command of one or their own n.c.o.s. a Messerachmittpilot who had been brought down. bv * French adversary behind the Magmo* Line.- ■ ■ J ■ 1 •; ' All the Germans appeared .contented* and all of them - were receiving packages and mail from home promptly and regularly. They said' that;their food was excellent and' : -that- their guards were kind. Nor was their work too hard—“ it is just enough -to keep us busy, with plenty of time left fw recreation.” . .. In accordance with international law,-, the ranker prisoners are receiving-th® same pay as that-given t® Frenchmen. but in the .• ; f oral of credits' in the canteen.- -Gfficers receive half the pay of a French officer. They are interned in speciallyprepared- quarters in the; local gaol* and have enough money to live really well. i r -