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[Page 9]
We had to lie on the wooden floor, without blankets or straw, and in the morning we were lined up and counted, then sent to work on the roads. For the first few weeks, in the morning only, one loaf of bread was given out for three men and one soup a day, which sometimes consisted of barley and sometimes sauerkraut, and if you were lucky you might score a bit of meat the size of a thimble.
As time went on our conditions got worse, being taken off the roadwork we were placed on ammunition dumps, all the while being under our own shell fire, building shelter sheds for troops. Although expecting better treatment, one morning our hopes were shattered as we were given a printed declaration to read dated May 1917, to the effect that "to Germany's request to Great Britain to withdraw all prisoners of war not less than 30 kilos of the front line, Great Britain had failed to reply, therefore, we were considered prisoners of respite, and would be badly treated, get hard work, bad food, and have to work beside the Hun guns, get no straw to lie on, no blankets, long hours to work, without soap, without pay, and were requested to write to our people, or any one in authority in England and tell them "how we were being badly treated, and then surely Great Britain will do as Germany requests: then you will be sent to a camp in Germany where you will get good treatment."
On reading this I made up my mind to try and make the best of things until I was either released or managed to escape. By this time we were feeling the pangs of hunger, and on our way to and from work, men would pick up cigar or cigarette ends from the streets