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[Page 31]
the roads and not until he falls unconscious, is he admitted to hospital. Very many have succumbed under these awful ordeals. The work, is always of the most strenuous nature. The greater portion of the famous "Hinderburg Line" has been constructed by prisoners of war. Russians do the cement work and gun emplacements whilst the British and French erect wire entanglements. The Hun possibly realizes that the British are cunning and cute, therefore he never allows them to do important work especially, where an opportunity presents itself, wherein there is any possible means of doing faulty work or setting traps. The strong cordon of Hun posterns supervise the work and guard the prisoners, both at work and during journeys to and from the barbed wire enclosure. The details I have given are not exaggerated and those men who have experienced the life and have managed to escape or had the luck to be repatriated, could tell of hundreds of similar miseries imposed upon helpless prisoners by Hun malefactors. I know of many less severe phases, but they are not my own personal experiences, therefore, I leave details to those man who have survived the atrocious Hun Retaliation.
30TH. I am considerably handicapped by the danger involved in keeping a diary of this sort, moreover it incurs the maximum punishment in the event of discovery; subsequently I shall, through necessity have to rely upon my memory. I think however that experiences under Hun rule will remain indelibly fixed in my memory. The notes unavoidably get badly damaged and soiled, under my method of concealing them. For this purpose I use a large tube of tooth paste for secreting them. The moisture quickly soils and often obliterates pencil writing. I unfasten the end of the tube and roll the paper into a ball and insert it in the centre of the paste; when the tube is refastened, one would not imagine anything to be concealed inside. I cannot use more than three tubes, on account of arousing suspicion; the Hun is clever and shrewd with his brutality; and is intolerably observant. Anything likely to convey information is promptly seized; so one must necessarily be prepared for periodical inspections which are