BRITAIN'S WAR PRISONERS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume II, Issue 378, 27 April 1915, Page 12

BRITAIN'S WAR PRISONERS.

HOW THEY ARE TREATED. VISIT TO AN ALIENS' CAMP. The following description of a visit to a concentration camp, written by a contributor to the London "Evening News," gives an idea of a typical camp wherein suspected aliens are at preseiit conilncd in .ICnglancl:—As "we walked down the street, at the far end of which the concentration camp was situated, two men approached

They were young, and dressed soberly in black; one of them carried a large basket, jvhi.eh, to judge from the jaunty way he swung it to and fro, was «mpty.

They.-.passed us, chatting and joking. "They are clerks," said my guide, "from, the Bank; the head of it isinterned. I expect they've been taking him some bottled consolation."

'.'Do .they allow the prisoners such luxuries'?" I enquired. "Oh, yes; there is a certain -amount of latitude allowed in the cases of those men who are known to be trustworthy.' Now, iu the case of D , for instance, whom I have been to see a number of times on business, we are troubled very little with formalities." Arrived at tlie entrance to the camp, we joined a queue of people who were waiting to pass the examiners of parcels.' In the Waiting Queue. And.a pathetic, miscellaneous crowd they were. In front of me there was a tired-looking woman, carrying a baby in one arm and holding the hand of another child at her side. The child was hugging a parcel wrapped iu newspaper. Everyone, in fact, was carrying a parcel or,a basket or bundle of some description, filled with tobacco, cigarettes, and some dainty dear to the heart of Fritz' or Friedrich.

They were mostly women and children in'the queue, though there were a number of men, among wkom were a couplet of clergymen. - From where I stood I could see the khaki-clad sergeant and private busily examining the contents of the parcels and bags as they were handed through an opening in the wooden partition at the entrance. They reminded me strongly of the Custom House luggage, rumriiagers,:, except that they seemed to be more particular about the wrappings .than the contents of-the parcels. Every piece of paper was examined in case any message was written in some.odd corner. There was a notice hanging behind the examiners, which read, "No parcels may be wrapped in newspaper," but in spite of that several people had ignored or forgotten tlie rule, and so had to bundle their gifts into their handkerchiefs, or else beg a piece of plain paper from the obliging Tommy in the examiner's box.

Nuts Not Allowed. '"May. the prisoners have anything brought to them in this manner?" I Whispered to my guide. r "Not nuts" was the enigmatic rejoinder.;

On. further enquiry I learnt that nuts were; forbidden fruit for tho interned men,, as a case had been discovered where,a certain prisoner's fondness of walnuts' 'led to the close .examination of a Ibjagful that had been given to him; lit was found that one of the nuts li'aVT had the kernel removed and a note j substituted. The two halves of 4he • shell had then been neatly glued together.,

At.length came our turn to pass the examiner's box. My friend's parcel went' through with but a very cursory inspection; clearly our "prisoner" was not on the black list. A written pass was handed to us, and wc joined a group of visitors who were waiting to be admitted—somewhere, I know not %here.

When about 30 visitors had passed.the examiner's board, they were conducted through a door in the further end of tho "entrance hall" (for lack of a better term), which led into the guard's messI'oorn, with its rows of empty tables and white-washed walls. Through this we tramped into the guardroom; where a number of Tommies were sitting about chatting and a couplo were busy at a bagatelle board in one corner. The rifle-rack, with its' row of well-cleaned riffes, gave xather.a sinister touch to the scene. Laughing Prisoners,

Beyond this room we were led into a larger room filled with tables and low benches. At one end was a door guarded by a sentry with fixed bayonet. Through this door strolled unconcernedly the prisoners for whom visitors had arrived.

They come" in twos and threes, and, for 'most part, laughing like schoolboys 75 ''.-' s>n, Through the door, as it ip6Be3 -and closod to let them through, &ne caught a glimpse of barbed wire, and

of faces that looked eagerly to see if Gretehen had arived yet. My guide soon saw his friendD , and in a few moments we were sitting at opposite sides of a plain deal tablo, while an observant sergeant walked up and down between the rows.

I looked around me, and was stmek by tho great mixture of the social classes present. An olegeutly attired young woman, clad in rich furs, was busily talking to a refined-looking man of affairs. At the next table an unmistakable O'cwailcr was jabbering away to the tiredlooking woman I had noticed at the entrance. The baby and the little girl gazed round them with great complacency and seemed only to be mildly interested in the proceedings. I joined in the conversation between D—— and his friend. A Letter and the Censor.

"Of course," the former assured me, • ( I am as English in thought and sentiment as you are; I happen to have been born in another country, that is all. But still, though I should be glad to get back to my business, I must say that I am treated here with every possible consideration. If only Germany and Austria treat their British prisoners as I have been treated here there will not be much for them to complain of."

A letter had been brought for him and he left us for a moment to hand it to the censor, an officer who was chatting to someone at the far end of the room. I watched the censor exchange a word of greeting with D , take and open the letter, read it, and return it with a nod. There was no formality. D was back at our table within three minutes.

Time was up, and I shook hands with I> • and wished him luck —for that phrase of his somehow stuck in my memory—"l am as English in thought and sentiment as you are; I happen to have been bora in another country; that is all."