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[Page 75]
who are excellent bush-cooks; considering their previous environment. Potatoes are obtainable through the Jews. We often exchange canned meat for them. Indeed vegetables are essential, when living entirely on canned food; otherwise we would never allow English food to pass out of our hands.
10th-17th My most recent discovery is a small compartment in a spare barrack, used by Englishmen on Sundays. Several energetic men have arranged a regular service, which makes our miserable lives more bearable. I have also found lots of English literature, forwarded through the British Red Cross Society, so I spend most of my time devouring books or studying French. The N.C.O.'s of each nationality have little to occupy their minds; to kill time they often make a study of different languages. Russians, who have been years in this camp, speak almost every language and delight in tutoring men interested in French, Russian or English. Otherwise the camp is quite uninteresting and is terribly slow and monotonous. One suffers from incessant frenzy.
18th-28th. Despite my eagerness to study, and my desire to kill time, my mind wanders now and again and tends to become morbid. I am bored almost to distraction by the intense monotony. Fortunately my living quarters have improved lately. All men awaiting internment and exchange are living in a barrack separated from the ordinary huts. This barrack faces the main raod, leading into the town. The hut is crowded with various nationalities, mostly Russians, who are repulsively filthy. One must not tax them with this without due consideration of the circumstances under which their unhappy lot is cast. For these men receive barely any assistance and have therefore, to rely upon their cunning. They are starved, incessantly at work and ill-treated. 80% of the Russians have no interest in life and would undoubtedly welcome death. Their few clothes are tattered and torn; to wash them means that they must remain naked until the clothes are dry. Through weakness and ill-health the poor wretches feel unequal to the lightest work, and their awful ignorance handicaps them considerably. When the soup arrives they swarm round the tubs, ravenously struggling and fighting to secure a little extra. The