Arizona republican., 1917-09-11

l contended with the German author ities for better living conditions at the civilian camp of Ruhleben. I was promised time and again by Colonel Friedrich, by the camp commander and by the foreign office that these conditions would be remedied In that camp men of education, men in del- icate health, were compelled to sleep and live six in box stall or so closely that the beds touched each other in hay-lofts, the outside walls of which were only four feet high.
 Finally, almost in despair, I wrote identical personal letters, after having exhausted all ordinary diplomatic steps, to General von Kesse con- mander of the Mark of Brandenberg. to the commander of the corps district in which the Rhuleben camp was sit uated, and to the minister of war the only result was that each of the of ficers addressed claimed that he had been personally insulted by me, be- cause l had presumed to call his at tention to the inhuman conditions un- der which the prisoners were con- pelied to live in the Ruhleben camp. , The commander of this civilian camp Of Ruhleben was a very handsome old , gentleman, named Count Schwerin lis second in command for a long time was Baron Taube. Both of these ! officers had been long retired from l the army and were ~'ven these prison commands at the commencement of
 the war. Both of them were naturally | kind hearted, but curiously sensitive 1 and not always of even temper. On the whole, l think that they sympa thlzed with the prisoners, and did their l best to obtain a bettering of the con- ! ditlons of their confinement. The 1 prisoners organized themselves in | their various barracks, each barrack
 having barrack captain of the bar racks, the captains electing one oi | their number as a camp captain or 1 "obmann."
 The man who finally appeared as head man of the camp was an ex- cine matoSraph proprietor, named Powell 1 In my mind, he, assisted by Beaumont
 and other captains, conducted the af- fairs of the camp-given the difficulty
 Of dealing with the prisoners on one
 hand and the prison authorities on the
 other hand-as well as possible Nat urally, he was always subject to op- position from many prisoners, among | whom those of aristocratic tendencies | objected to being under the control ot i one, not of the highest caste in Eng
 land, and there were others who either
 envied him his authority or desired his place. The camp authorities allowed | Powell to visit the embassy at least
 once week; in that way was enabled
 to keep in direct touch with the camp
 At two periods durino my stay in Der.
 lin spent enough days at the camp tC | enable every prisoner who had a com
 piaint of any kind to personally pre- | sent it to me
 The organization of this camp wa. ! quite extraordinary. I found it impos.
 sible to get English prisoners to per.
 form the ordinary work of cleaning UT
 the camp, etc, always expected o l prisoners themselves, and so, with the
 funds furnished me from the British | government. the camp captain was
 compelled to pay a number of the
 poorer prisoners to perform this work
 Secretaries Ruddock and Kirk. of oul l embassy, performed the uninterestins ] and arduouS work of superintendine
 these payments as well as our othel
 financial affairs. This work was mos | trying, and they deserve great credit l for their self denial.
 | Additions to the Camp Diet
 By arrangement with the British | SONSi iiiiiCiit, wal tlSO eIldDleu D1N 1 the poorer prisoners an allowance o1 ] five marks a week, thus permittine them to buy little luxuries and neces-
 sities and extra food at the camp can | teen which was early established ir 1 the camp. I also furnished the capita | to the camp canteen, enabling it to l make its purchases and carry on its business In this establishment every
 thing could be purchased which was 1 purchasable in Germany, and. fo, months after the commencement oi
 the war. articles of luxury were sold
 at profit and articles of food sold
 at loss for the benefit of those who 1 required an addition to the camp diet There was a street in the camp of | little barracks or booths which the 1 prisoners christened Bond street. and | where many stores were in operation such as tailor shop, shoemaker
 watchmaker, and so on. Acting with Powell, 1 succeeded in getting the Ger
 man authorities to turn over the | kitchens to the prisoners. Four of the l prisoners who did most excellent self denying work in these kitchens de.
 serve to be specially mentioned. They
 were Ernest L. Pyke, Herbert Kastner
 Richard H. Carrad and George Ferg. uSsOn.
 The men in this camp subsisted tt
 a great extent upon the packages O.
 food sent to them from England l frra1it fcf ha rix,