FROM BERLIN.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume II, Issue 462, 3 August 1915, Page 11

FROM BERLIN.

FLEEING FROM GERMANY.

A „ CHRISTCHURCH MAN'S

ADVENTURES.

Some very interesting and* rather exciting experiences have been the lot of Mr George Ellwood, the wellknown young Christ church musician, in the past year. Mr EllwOod was one of the last able-bodied Britishers to get out of Germany, whither he had gone to prosecute his musical studies. He returned to Christchurch on Sunday. Just a year ago Mr Ellwood was in Berlin. He was there when war was declared, and when Great Britain came into the war—and he was extremely thankful when he managed to get out of Germany nearly a week later. But let Mr Ellwood tell his story in his own words, as he narrated it to a Sun representative this morning. "The German people- were very quiet, individually," said Mr Ellwood. "Everything was shut down. The people were pretty enthusiastic, until England came in. After that they seemed to lose heart. Before the war they were very fond of poking fun at England and the English. They seemed to change after we came into it. They made great demonstrations in crowds, but when you got them singly they were very quiet. The English were treated very badly in the streets. So were the Russians. One day I saw two Russian ladies mobbed in the street. The, crowd spat on them and smacked their , facest Two policeman '.came up arid called a taxi cab, but when the taxi found that the ladies 'were jßussiaris hie wotild not move. They had to run for it. Even if you got to tire railway station the porters would not handle your luggage. / A NARROW ESCAPE. "Before England .declared war I asked* i£ I could get out. They wouldn't let you leave. On August 9 I heard that a train was leaving for North Germany. I took that, and got ;to the island of Rugen, just off the German Baltic coast. There I found that a boat was leaving, for Sweden that day. It was the last boat running. On the wharf were 4000 undesirable who were not of military age and who had been provided with passes to let them get out of Germany; the Germans did not want to feed them. Those Russians had been there for three or four ~days, and only a few of them managed to get any food, so that they were more or less starving. They were in a very bad condition. When the boat drew up the Russians crowded on to her so thickly that the soldiers who were examining passports on the wharf could not manage to see more than about one passport in 10. I got into the crowd and managed to get on the boat without showing my passport. 'lf I had shown it I would have been stopped, as I was of military agc r and I would have been sent to Riihleben or treated as a spy. From Sweden I went to Copenhagen, where I saw the Danish fleet all mobilised in and about Copenhagen harbour, which was mined. From Denmark I got to Edinburgh, and then to London, where I remained until June. CORRALLING THE ENGLISH.

"I was very lucky to get out when I didrfor I learned afterwards that five.or six hours after I got out of Berlin police visited all the flats and rooms occupied, by English people and rounded up all the men of military age. In October all the Englsh women and the children under 10 were allowed to leave, but the people who were there after that had to stay. All the Englishmen are in the internment camp at Ruhleben, just outside Berlin, where they are quartered in the racing stables. One lady who got out of Berlin in October told me that until she left she had to report to the police twice a day, and she was not allowed to leave her district without a pass. Sbe was living in a suburb of Berlin, and if she wanted; to go into the city she had to -obta,iri. a passport from the police. The English people who had their own flats and had lived in them for some years were, not collected until October. : The police as a whole were not so very bad. The trouble was that when the German people were in crowds they; became brutal. Of course, there were some nice people. , We would; have been treated worse by the mob if there had not been a number of Americans living in Berlin. The people had been warned not to molest Americans, and as the Americans speak English, too, the people had to be more or less cartful. The Germans all Ihouglit that America was going- to take Germany's side in a very short time."