The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-11-03
ENGLISH WERE ILL
 TREATED BY GERMAN
Author Back After Eleven
 Months Internment
STARVATION TERMS
Privileged Interned Could Get Decent Meal at Casino" by Paying Several Prices-Treated More Like Con-
 victs Than Anything Else

London, October 2- Special. ) Francis Gribble, who has written so many books about court life in Eu- rope a couple of months ago, not to mention many readable novels) and who also has given us some delightful studies of present-day life in Switzer- land, Is back in England again after war experiences that he Is likely to remember to his dying day. For the past II months, he has been interned n the Ruhleben race course near Ber- lin. in company with 450O other Eng lishmen. who, according to Gribble, are subjected to "every kind of moral phys ical ill-treatment at the hands of ruth less jailors.''
 When the war broke out Gribble was travelling to Geneva via the pleasant Ardennes and was arrested by the Ger mans in Luxembourg. He was fairly we'll treated--it was neutral territory and released in October, 1914, with the necessary papers to secure his re- turn to England. But he was not to escape so easily. At Coblenz, his pa- pers were declared to be incorrect The author was interned forthwith and for several months his fellow members of the Authors club kept him supplied with bread to supplement the meagre rations issued by his captors Conditions Were Awful Conditions at the Ruhleben camp at the beginning were unspeakable" said Gribble to your correspondent but they have improved in recent months, thanks probably to the American am- ba ssador"
 Germany treats her prisoners on starvation terms, and pays for noth- ing, but as they could not let even the hated English die in their camp, they organized so-called casino where the privileged interned can get a decent meal-at extortionate prices Special cards are needed to go to the casino and each card makes 1t com pulsory for its owner to take meal there
 ''We were treated more as a colony of convicts than as anything else. The people who could not get casino per nit had, of course, to be satisfied with the food the Germans gave them. And 1t Is some food! The coffee is made with acorns, and the meat served with the midday meal is often decayed.
 They gave us rice, but it was the mere sweepings of the warehouses, and contained an overwhelming pro- portion of dirt and dust. Little wonder that many interned have been suffer- majority are afflicted with boils or carbuncles
 However harsh the treatment of the interned. what the men suffer from most is boredom. There is nothing to do. They have a game of football ev- cry now and then. and sometimes a kind of golf. Otherwise they have no distraction Still hax pir- its up.
 Created DissentiOn "The Germans last attempts were to smash up the perfect union among the interned. Out of 4500 men in Ruhle- ben there must be a handful who are merely Britons by birth, though they have lived all their lives in Germany. and, in some cases. do not even speak a word of English.
 'These men who are in sympathy with Germany have been carefully sorted out. and the true Britons have been anxious to have nothing to do with them Once however. an incident occurred. One of these 'hyphenated Englishmen overheard some remark from the lips of an informed man, and complained to Baron Won Taube, the commander of the camp, that the Brit ons usually called those of their fell lows interned who are in sympathy with Germans----Germans
 Baron Won Taube, who knows no English. and probably owes to this blssful ignorance the honor of com manding an English camp, was very angry when he heard of thatl He nat urally favors the 'hyphenated interned, very likely by order. He immediately had the fire bugle sounded, which brought the A500 interned to the doors of their 20 barracks.
 '"He then passed before each hut and delivered speech--the same speech before each door. Some men in camp he said, in dramatic voice and pathetl- cally batting his chest, have been called ---Germans.' That is infamous. You