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[Page 9]
the younger of whom in war time were forced to serve in the army, in most cases as field ambulance men. It mas in one of these Institutions that I found myself, there must have been very close on fifteen hundred patients being looked after by these monks with not a woman on the working staff of the establishment.
While going through the reception room of the hospital my pay book, which was taken from me, was the object of much interest to the German soldiers who comprised the clerical staff of the hospital, for our payments of twenty or forty francs in the field fortnightly was indeed something in comparison to german soldier's pay - which, inclusive of allotment, amounted to about fourpence per day.
Before going into the special ward set apart for prisoners I received my long looked for bath - being scrubbed down by a couple of Russians. How I enjoyed it although there was no soap, for it is amazing the dirt that can be removed by hot water and a scrubbing brush. My new quarters was the attic of the hospital into which forty prisoners, of all nationalities, were crowded. Our beds were alright and cleanliness was strictly enforced, but the air at night-time with overcrowding - stank unbearably. The food was an
improvement - being better cooked - though the quantity was absolutely insufficient, boiled turnips -in the absence of potatoes- being the star item on the menu the same food
might fatten pigs but I'm certain the Creator never meant them for invalids.
The occupants of this ward were certainly cosmopolitan for apart from the three Englishmen I had left Cambrai with, they consisted of Frenchmen, Russians, Servians, and one old "contemptible". They had all met with accidents, in some cases self inflicted, in the different industries of the
"Father land" that they had been compelled to work at. Prom the Englishmen I heard tales of the german treatment of prisoners in the latter months of '14, how the prisoners roughed it until the food parcels commenced to arrive from England, and for the benefit of the disbelieving section of the public I can assure you that what he told me was in no way different to what our press has published the last few years.
Medical treatment by way of an operation was impossible in my particular case, although I was ex-rayed. One of the Englishmen who had come through with me from Prance, through careless dressing, lost the use of his right arm. Another had a shrapnel pellet in the middle of his shoulder removed