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[Page 55]
was no trace of any disease, and that we would soon be in good old "Blighty."
The morning arrival of "escapees" or "smugglers" was practically the only incident of interest here and needless to say was watched by all inside who were naturally anxious to see if any of them resembled the mates who had started off with themselves [indecipherable] . The Sister in charge spoke English fluently, and on hearing there were some Australians just arrived, she came across to give us a greeting and incidentally find out what she could of our bonny Southern Island. Her questions at last exhausted, I asked her if my three former "cobbers" had been through this station, telling her their names. This caused her great excitement, for the leader of the three, our former "interpreter" understood her language well, and they had many talks together. He had shown her the photo of seven of us, feeling proud that three of them had escaped. To convince her that I was of the other three of the first attempt, I showed her my photo of the seven Colonials, with the glad assurance that now five of the seven had slipped between Fritz's fingers. So pleased was she, that she borrowed it, to have an enlargement made, in memory of Colonial pluck and daring.
Later on the Sister received a letter from those others in England, and kindly brought it along for us to read. They were having a good time in Blighty, and their words were like good wine to us, for we considered their letters a prophesy of what a glorious time was in store for us there also when we too were at last in Blighty.
After leaving the Dr. came the bath-room, where we had to battle very hard to keep our "hair" on. It was the usual custom to clip the hair very close, the rest being shaved off, thus leaving no possible hiding place for any body vermin whatever, but we managed after a lot of persuasive argument to keep our hair, and once more to appear as Civilians. This was a very sore point with a little Frenchman who had crossed two days later than us who had to submit to the whole cleaning operation.
In the Barracks there were 7 Russians and 1 Belgian, at least he claimed to be such, although his speech and manners were that of a typical German, we would amuse ourselves by telling him that he was a smuggler and a German. Whatever he was he did me a very good turn by writing a letter for me to the Hun Station Master who had asked me so many questions after I was re-captured on my first attempt to escape. I explained my success and rubbed it in about his Sentry's watchfulness, and graphically detailed our plentiful food, supplies and comforts, contrasting it all with conditions in his country. As it was written in good German he would understand it, and I registered it so that it would reach him.
Our food here was mainly soup, but how vastly different to the "soup" of Germany. In it was meat, foodstuffs, good, well-cooked vegetables, and plenty of seasoning, with lunch, and afternoon tea of fresh white bread and real fresh butter. The result of this good food and rest was that we put on weight at once. One day I weighed and found to my immense satisfaction, that in 11 days I had put on as many