ESCAPE FROM GERMANY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16025, 17 September 1915, Page 8

ESCAPE FROM GERMANY.

ENGLISHMAN'S TRIALS.

CAPTIVE NEARLY A YEAR.

ILLNESS AND PERILS.

After almost a year's imprisonment in Germany, Mr. Geoffrey L. Pyke, Renter's correspondent in Denmark at the outbreak of war, escaped, and reached Amsterdam-

Shortly after the outbreak of war Mr. I Pyke left England to study economic con- j ditions in Germany on behalf of the Daily Chronicle. He was arrested within a few days of his arrival in Germany, and was afterwards only heard of in indirect ways. Mr. Pyke, who suffered many hardships, finally escaped in company with Mr. Edward Falk, of the Nigerian Political Service, who was arrested just before the outbreak of war, while holiday-making. After telling of bis arrest in a Berlin hotel, Mr. Pyke describes his life for four months in a narrow cell in a prison used for the worst roughs in Berlin. While here he saw about a dozen Englishmen, who were members of the Committee for the Relief of British Destitute in Germany.

Four Months in Prison. "I remained in this prison," says Mr. Pyke, " without artificial light, and without books or writing materials, 16 weeksAfter the winter daylight, which fails in Berlin at half-past three in the afternoon, I remained in Cimmerian gloom till the following daybreak. Day followed day in this unrelieved monotony, till mind and spirit alike seemed on the verge of disruption. Suddenly, when abed on the 112 th night, my cell door opened, and a gruff voice roared, 'Come out.* Before I knew it I was whisked to Ruhleben. "I should not omit to mention that while I was imprisoned the police doctor refused to examine me when I was suffering from blood-poisoning, a result of bad food. The refusal was simply owing to my nationality. He observed that when Germans were better treated in England be would be prepared to examine me. Mv English fellow-prisoners bad whispered that Ruhleben existed, whereupon I wrote repeated agonised petitions to be released to the freedom of a nrison camp. My fellow-captives had heard "of Ruhleben from a friendly policeman.

Experiences at Kuhleben. ''When I reached Ruhleben (saya Mr. ; Fyke) I had no soles to my boots, having walked them off pacing my narrow cell. I The snow and ice on the ground at this I time rendering my sufferings acute. You ; know all about Ruhleben in those days. Kuhleben means "restful life.' but to us this was a bitter mockery. However, mv fellow-prisoners there received me with j such kindness that the remembrance still i deeplv moves me. It was not their fault j that 300 of us slept in one hayloft, the I attic shape of which prevented" half its tenants maintaining the erect position. i Here I contracted pneumonia, and nearly died. I received no medical attention. From February till June I suffered from repeated illnesses." The writer tells how he became acquainted at Ruhleben with Mr. Falk, and how they spent three months perfecting their plans to escape. He continues:—

Escape is Broad Daylight. "We escaped in broad daylight in the afternoon of July 9, passing through a : cordon of armed ©entries and four tall i barbed-wire fences. Spending the night 1 in an adjoining sandpit, we entered Berlin the next morning, enjoying our first real good meal for months with huge relish, flavoured by fear. i " Buying an outfit for a walking tour !of the Harz Mountains, we trained to Bielefeld, where we alighted, and tramped i the rest of the way by ■. night across counj try with the aid of a luminous compass, ! passing over fields of barbed wire, through ' dense forest. Drenched to the skin every day by heavy rains, we lived on about 4oz of food daily, stealing turnips, sugar beets, and potatoes from gardens and i fields. i "As we approached to within 50 miles I of the Dutch frontier we found it necessary to exercise greater and greater • caution. Once during the day, wh3e hid--1 ing in a copse, we found ourselves the ! centre of a cavalry manoeuvre ground, a squadron approaching within 20yds. This alarm over, we resumed our journey with provisions almost exhausted. Last Thursday night (July 22) we almost lost ourselves in a peat bog upon a desolate moor, darkness adding to our perils from peat- ■ holes.

[ Last Dash Through Sentry Lines. I "On Friday we made our position by dead reckoning to be about a mile from the Dutch boundary. Prepared for a last forward dash through the German sentry lines, we found ourselves surprised in our hiding-place by an armed guard. All seemed lost. We saw before us another prolonged period of terrible, solitary confinement, when, to our joy and amazement, Dutch soldiers disclosed themselves. We hardly could believe our good fortune when they told us thai- we were 50vds inside Dutch territory. They had taken us for smugglers."

THROUGH GERMAN EYES.

REVIEW? OF THE WAR.

"ENGLAND THE REAL ENEMY."

The German newspap--"' published at the beginning of -last mo. immensely bulky reviews of the first yc .»■ of war. The only official contribution seems to be a atatement in figures of the extent of enemy territory occupied by Germany, of the number of . prisoners of war— to be 1,695,400 — of the aporoximate number of captured guns and machine-guns-The leading articles are longer, but not more interesting, than usual. Although a journal like the Hamburger Freradenblatt declares that Germany " has emerged from the first year of war as the strongest Power in the world," most writers admit that Germany never expected the wax to last so long.. Their main theme is that Germany is still absolutely united and determined, that there is still a long and bitter struggle ahead, and that England is the real enemy that has to be overthrown.

The Berlin correspondent of the Cologne Gazette writes : —" One can defeat with rifles savages armed •with arrows, and one can defeat with machine-guns enemies who are of equal quality, but who have neglected to provide themselves with machine-guns. But even if one has bought the newest, weapon, one cannot defeat enemies who possess not only the same weapons, but also higher intelligence, higher moral force, better leading, and' better technical aids to the conduct of war. We are victorious because all our weapons, both intellectual and mechanical are superior." '

-T, !u- euz L Zel } un ? says:—"England still thinks that she has the power and clings to her determination, to destroy us. And if it should dawn upon her that this aim cannot be reached in the present struggle, she will give up her determination only in so far as we compel her to do so For, after bitter experiences, it has at last been hammered into us in the past year that we cannot expect true understands gor friendship with England, that England s desires for our future threaten us with every injury that her power enables her to do us, that no pity and no mercy are to be hoped for in regard to any weakness that we may show her. and that we can reckon upon the toleration of our existence in the world only to the extent to which the position of power that we win compels this toleration by Enland. For the achievement of our aims the overthrow of all our enemies is necesZ3' IT 7 d" 9 -° °°r splendid victories asamst the Russians is a decisive step upon our way .but it is not the last step." the Socialist Vorwaerts maintains that the military defeat of Germany is impossible, and in an article by it* military correspondent says that the war is becoming "ore and more a test of endurance, and that Germany must be prepared to see it last still a long time.