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[Page 16]
In the first week of March, this party that had been passed by the Doctor, left the camp and entrained at Haltenn in a 4th class carriage of an ordinary passenger train - for a destination unknown.
We were a motley crowd -- seven Colonials and thirty- three Englishmen of all regiments (including a sprinkling of "Derby's ' last issues" i,e. men recruited under Lord Derby's scheme of compulsory enrollment.
The Colonials included three Canadians, three Australians (Choate, Pitts, and myself) and a South African by name Charles who was accompanying us as interpreter and who, the day before we left had just done fourteen days for "not getting to Holland" otherwise being caught whilst escaping.
I had one thing to be thankful for, for beyond that which I stood up in I possessed nothing in the way of luggage or kit. Casting my eyes around the crowd I
noticed Charles, the S.A., weak with his solitary confinement making heavy headway with his "gear". In the four miles to the station I gave him what assistance I was capable of,in relieving him at intervals. Later he re-payed a thousand times for the good turn I gave him.
Our journey of some five hours passed without incident, except that the leather strap hangers in the carriage were removed by one of the Canadians - to be afterwards used in repairing the sole of a pair of boots- leather of any kind being absolutely unprocurable.
We knew that the district we were making for was the industrial centre of Germany, and had our destination been a coal mine our resolution formed on the journey was to refuse to enter it, so that when we arrived at a suburb of Dusseldorf and disentrained all eyes were eagerly watching for "our to be abode". Imagine our surprise when we halted - after ten minutes walk from the station - at a three-storeyed building in the outskirts of the town, all the windows of the building were barred up and an eight feet paling fence,with about eight strands of barbed wire on top of it,surrounded the establishment.
The ground space was very limited, about as small as the average suburban back-yard, but the interior of the two upper floors to which we were "assigned" appeared like a palace after thg rough condition of our quarters at Dulmen.