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FROM RUHLBEN.

A NEW ZEALANDER LIBERATED.

. RETURN TO LONDON. LONDON, March 24th. Among the last party of civilians liberated from the German internment camp arid allowed to return to England was Mr Charles J. King, of Napier. Mr King, with his wife, left New Zealand in September, 1913, and after paying some visits in Australia, had proceeded, by way of Java, China, Japan, and the Siberian Railway, to Europe. He was in Berlin when war broke out, and as Mrs King was then very ill it was quite impossible for him to leave the country. Mr King says that he and his wife were living on a pension in Berlin when the war broke out. When war seemed imminent a number of the English people were able to get out of the country, hut train accommodation was very limited, owing to the tremendous number of troops being moved about. War was declared on Tuesday night, and on the following morning, between 9 and 10 o’clock, he went to call on the British Consul. The offices were already in the occupation of German soldiers, and everybody who called was herded together in small, over-crowded rooms, and kept there for many hours, black and white being mixed indiscriminately, and there being no room even to sit down. Everybody was examined and questioned, and finally taken in ordinary prison vans to the prison in the Alexander Plats, where they were again examined. Late at night they were liberated, with orders to report themselves every day to the police station nearest to their dwelling. Men and women alike had to report twice a day; they w r ere restricted to a certain district, and compelled to he indoors before eight o’clock at night. On the fith November all British subjects were arrested and interned, hut colonials were given a few weeks’ respite, merely having to report daily as before. It was not till February, 1915, that they were arrested also, and incarcerated in the Stadtvogtei (military prison), where they were kept for three weeks before being transferred to Ruhlehen. Mr King himself, after continued applications, in which he was much assisted by a German merchant who was married to an English lady, was allowed to remain tit liberty until the 16th March, owing to the very serious illness of his wife, who was then at a sanatorium and lyid undergone several operations. THE CAMP AT RUHLEBEN. Mrs King was finally able to leave the sanatorium in May, and she then came to England with a party of English ladies; hut even the delicate state of her health did not save her from the necessity of removing all bandages to satisfy the frontier guard that she was not carrying contraband. Ruhlehen is a training track in Berlin, and there were certain buildings, stables, etc., in which the prisoners were housed. From the beginning the food was very unsatisfactory, and, of course, not suitable for English people. Neither was there sufficient of it, a trouble which has been much accentuated lately. In fact, Mr King says that, if it were not for the parcels sent by English people, it would have been'impossible for the prisoners to have subsisted. In May, 1915, all the interned persons were paraded, and those who had German sympathies were asked to step out. “I am sorry to say,” said Mr King, “that something like seven hundred out of the whole camp of four thousand did so. A few of them, no doubt, expected by confessing German sympathies, to be better treated than the others, but most of those who stepped out were actually Germans in everything except name; although they happened to lie British by birth they had lived the whole of their lives in Germany, and in many cases could not even speak English. Only one New Zealander confessed to having German sympathies, and lie, 1 believe, either had a German wife or was engaged to a German girl. “The pro-Germans, or I’.G’s., as they were afterwards called, were put into separate barracks, and the only advantage we know of that they enjoy is that some of them are allowed freedom to go to places in Germany occasionally. The P.G’s. were generally worse off than the others from the point of view of food, because they had no friends outside Germany who could send in food for them.. The separation of the prisoners according to their sympathies was a decidedly good move, because i* did away with MOV friction the! might have occurred between the factions.” SPORTS AND PASTIMES. The social welfare of the interned persons depended entirely upon their own exertions. In the middle of the racecourse there was sufficient ground for cricket, football, tennis, and even a small golf-course, but the prisoners had to do all this for them Selves, and had even to pay a rent for the ground. Fortunately, most of them had more or less money. A civilian was elected as captain of the camp, whose duty it was to act as gobetween with the military authorities, and each barrack also had a captain. Formerly, the administration of the camp was entirely military, but now, through these civilian captains, Ruhlehen is practically under cjvil government. There are, of course, military guards in the camps, probably two hundred of them, but they now live apart from the prisoners in separate barracks. They are rather a mixed lot of men, some being young men who apparently have bad no war service, while others are obviously old soldiers recuperating from sickness or wounds. On the whole, the soldiers are much more reasonable now in their attitude towards tile-prisoners than they were formerly.

When the camp was first formed each man was given one military blanket and a sack of uncleaned straw, which had previously been used by the Russians. Since then the sacks have been twice emptied and refilled with fine wood shavings, such as are used in shops for packing goods. Hail it not been for the clothing and Idfird-'ets which were afterwards re | been very much appreciated. Each

man was given a small basin in which he had to do not only his cooking, hut also his toilet. Knives and forks were never issued, but it was always possible for the people in the camp to obtain anything of this sort, of quite good quality, at the ordinary prices in Berlin. The English prisoners never really became accustomed to the German bread, and the hulk of the daily issue, Mr King says, was, by and by, taken away by the soldiers at night and sold to the public outside the camp, until the authorities discovered that was happening, and put u stop to it. The prisoners, however, made an effort to dispose of a certain amount of this bread each day, for fear that the issue may be stopped and at the same time their supplies from abroad may not reach them. AN ACTIVE REBELLION.

English newspapers are officially forbidden in the camp, but they have generally been obtainable, ail the same. The German papers contained, of course, only the German version of the war, and if nothing else had been available prisoners would often have been very' despondent As it is, the spirit of the camp has been excellent throughout,'despite the official rule that whenever there is a German victory the German flag must he hoisted in the yard, and on all the other flagstaff. On one occasion, the Kaiser’s birthday, the flag was found on the .ground, at the foot of the pole, having evidently been cut down. As a punishment the whole camp was consigned to barracks for twenty-four hours. Mr King was in November last declared by the chief military officer In the camp to be unfit for military duty, and was therefore permitted to return to England, though the opportunity did not come till March. Before leaving he was carefully photographed by the authorities, and his passport was vised at the American Embassy. He was, however, never asked for any undertaking not to serve against the Germans. There are about 200 other men in the camp who have been similarly declared unfit for military duty, but for various reasons they have not been able to get to England yet.

NEW ZEALANDERS AT RUHLEBEN. The other New Zealanders in the eamp at Ruhleben, not counting the pro-German, are: Mr Tom Sullivan (the sculler, who was acting as coach to a Berlin rowing' club when the war broke out), and his son, Mr T. B. Sullivan; Mr P. Godfrey, a marine engineer from Pahiatua; and Mr E. Tuckey, a marine engineer, Wellington, whose ships were interned at Hamburg; Mr Horace G. Hunt (organist, Wellington), Mr L. Carr (Palmerston North), and Mr W. Morris (Normanby), musical students; Mr W. R. Webb (Ponsonby, Auckland), and Mr A. H. Jones' (Christchurch), Mr T. H. S. Retling (an old boy of St. Patrick’s College, Wellington), and Mr G. Morrison (Dunedin),

Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAIPM19160511.2.29

Bibliographic details

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7718, 11 May 1916, Page 4

Word Count
1,493

FROM RUHLBEN. Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7718, 11 May 1916, Page 4

FROM RUHLBEN. Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7718, 11 May 1916, Page 4

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