The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-10-08
British Prisoners of War
Rebel Against Working
In a German Mine
Private HObin Tells How Pit Was Laid Idle
And Russians Took Their Revenue
From INTERNATIONAL NEWS BUREAU, Inc
From the INTERNATIONAL NEWS BUREAU. Inc.
=1rom the International News Blu
reau, IncJ

--'rom the International News Blu
reau. Inc.J
~rivate Patrick Hobin, of the Dur
ham Light Infantry. the writer Of
this remarkable series. has, after
three attempts. escaped from Ger
many. spending two years and four
months there as a captive. During
that period Hobin, who in the days of
peace was a miner. was sent from one
prison camp to another, and kept the
Germans on the jump wherever he
was.
private Hobin and a remnant of
the Faithful Durhanns fell into Ger
man hands after facing terrific enemy
onslaughts at Ypres. He was taken
TO Munster as a prisoner of war. and
from there was transferred to Ober-
hansen. In Westphalia. From here
he made an attempt to escape, but
after being at liberty for six days he
was recaptured when about an hour s
journey from the frontier.
(Followine his futile attempt to
escape. he and his chums were all but
starved to death by his captors. TIL Il
werANnlso forced to go down the mine.
tofwork.) kes
On arrived at the bottom of the
mine at Oberhausen, we still refused
to do a stroke OF work The guards
pointed out to us that we were only
asking for trouble, but this gentle
hint did not in any way alter our
opinion. Again and again we told the
men that we had not the least idea
how to work coal, but we were
promptly told that we would have to
do as we were ordered. However.
the more they threatened the more
we stuck to our guns The time,
however, arrived when we thought it
would be best to do something, not be-
cause we wanted to do so, but simply
tofsave our skins.
Then one Of the guards came forth
and. button holing one of the Cana
dams, he told him that If he fol-
lowed him further down the main gall
lerymhe would give him an easy job.
The Canadians believed the story by
the guard and followed him into the
darkness. He had no sooner got out
OF sight than he was attacked by
four saf the guards. They knocked
him down, and whilst three pinioned
bis arms. the other man beat him
with d thick piece of timber.
The Colonel, who was very
Ftrops FELLOW. managed to throw his
fhree assailants off, but the other
man with the weapon slashed at him
continually With one arm free he
warded on the blows. After they had
given him what they thought was suf-
Gckent, he was allowed to return to
the shaft, where he told us his story.
Ills arm was mass OF bruises, and
badly SWOLLEN. The poor fellow was
An a terrible plight
@5 In consequence OF this attack we
absolutely refused to continue at
work. What was more, we did not do
my that shift.
IVY On going to the top again, the Ca
Siadian called one of the officials at
fention to the injured arm, and told
Aim that he would not go down the
mime again until his arm was healed.
The official. however told him that
her would have to continue working
whether his arm was right OF not.
We went down the second day, but
we did more harm than good. When
\ ever we made q blunder, and were
Masked for an explanation, we gener-
tally replied that we did not know
whether we were doing right OF
wrong, inasmuch as we were ignorant
Of mining work.
Our work was to fill mpty wagons
and put the full ones in the cage and
have them carried to the top. We
ttcck our time, and this caused mucr
dissatisfaction among the officials and
men at the top, who, of course, couit
not get the coal up at the recognized
intervals. This. however. did no
ttroubls us.
We had not been long at work be
fore we set about having our revenge
according to a prearranged plan, W,
allowed full wagon to get halfwa.
on the cage. We gave the order tina
all was well to the German on tn,
top. Then the clutch was Ripe,
away, and the wagon came back Will
crash, ripping up the lines an,
gear within its reach. The shat
through this accident was completed
blocked, and the pit in consequence
was laid idle for three days willis
skilled men repaired the damage.
The officials were absolutely will
with temper. They threatened us
but to all their threats we replied tina
1t was pure accident caused throug
y inexperience. This argument, how
ever failed to convince the official
at that time. and we were ordere
TO attend q special court, which wa
TO be set UP to inquire into the FAC
4cident"
We knew we were In for somethin
drastic II found out. but we were nc
afraid TO face this mock trial.
We werea all soon afterwards array
ed before the military and mine off
cials. with a German interpreter /
attendance. I was asked to accour
for the accident, and I gave such
mfxed-up version OF the affair that
completely bewildered the interprete
The court got very little out of m
I'm fact, my explanation Of the waf
ons and the terms for the workin
gear at the shaft were so absurd ths
even myself didn't know what
was talking about.
Al through the trial we absolut,
N eewildered the interpreter. We DIR,
eBnded we couldn't understand VIII:
hAs was talking about, and when v
did answer his quections our languas
and the way Of putting It complete
mystified the German. Sometimes /
got hold OF a word which he wou
try to make palmer, but in SO doir
we generally made the meaning
the word entirely different to VIII
we really intended it to mean. In IL
sd. the only important point !
could tell his colleagues was that '
had said we had never seen mil
before and that the smash in the 7
was due to our ignorance. This a