INTERNED GERMANS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17055, 10 January 1919, Page 8

INTERNED GERMANS.

COMPLAINTS AS TO. FOOD.

MORE VEGETABLES DEMANDED.

[BY d'ELEGHAPH.— CORRESPONDENT.] CHRISTCHtJRCH, Thursday.

Apparently it is not quite clear yet whether von Luckner and his fellows are prisoners or gueßts of honour. The Sun says that from time to time information has reached it of soft-headed indulgences to these gentlemen, amounting in general to a stupid scandal. Another story has been received to-day from Narrow Neck, a story that would not be published ii in essentials it'were not unassailable. The day of their arrival in their latest paradise, the Motuihi "tourists" objected to the camp vego tables, though these had been good enough for our troops for the last two years or more. The Germans, however, demanded in addition green peas, beet and carrots, So also they insisted on whisky, eggs, and fresh fruit for their own precious sick, and got them, though our own patients from Rurotonga, many of them phthisical suspects, were receiving, and presumably are still receiving, tne most rigid and monotonous camp fare. But perhaps the best evidence of the actual position is the following scale of rations (the present official scale for Gorman prisoners) -.-Bread, daily; meat, Ulb; bacon, Jib; cheese, 2oz; coffee, \m; jam, ±oz; fresh milk, i pint; flour, l^oz; baking powder, three tins for every 1001b of flour; oatmeal, loz daily; onions, 4oz; vegetables (fresh), 8oz; potatoes, lib; salt, ioz; sugar, 4oz; tea, fcz; butter 4oz; dried fruit, 4oz per week; peppor, l-360z daily; rice, 4oz weekly; currants, 2oz; tapioca, 2oz; sago. 2oz; curry powder 3oz; for the sick 2J cases of fresh fruit every other day, and eggs and whisky.

The commandant of the Narrow Neck prison camp. Major Schofield, to whom the statements contained in the above tclewam were reforred last evening, stated Ihat no such vegetables as green peas, beet, and carrots had been allowed to the prisoners, but they were permitted to purchase them if they chow. First-class prisoners, he said, received rations about equal to those supplied to soldiers, while the fare of -.econd-class prisoners was less than that of soldiers. The average cost of the maintenance of first-class prisoners was about the same as the average ccct of maintaining soldiers, namely, fro-.n la 9d to Is lOd a day, while the average cost of second-class prisoners ranged from Is to Is Id. The hospital diet for the sick was the same for all prisoners as for soldiers, and it always was authorised by the AesistantDirector of Medical Services. No whisky or eggs was supplied without his authority, and these extras were granted only to sick soldiers or prisoners.