The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1919-05-16
ESCAPES BY
OUTWITTlNG TURK
By Taking Insanity, British Captain
Gains Opportunity to Escape
From Prison.

nine llVeS, considering tne series OF
adventures he has come through al
most unscathed. Except for a few
minor scratches On the face, received
in Asia Minor when he was flying
with General Allenby's army, Cap
tain Bott bears no marks of injury.
The captain arrived in the United
States recently. He is in this coun-
try on a lecture tour.
He was a newspaper man in Lon
don when the war broke out and was
20 years old when he enlisted. He
has an official record Of seven planes
brought down and wears the white and
purple ribbon signifying that he has
won the British military cross for
valor.
Captain Bolts first war flying was
done in France, but he likes best to
tell of his experiences in the Holy
land, where he had some adventures
which sound like pages from romance.
Falling from the clouds into the hands
of Arabs escaping from various pris-
ons, slowing away aboard Bolshevik
steamships in the Black sea, strolling
about in Constantinople disguised as
a German officer-all are included in
the young aviator's experience, and
he tells of his exploits in a modest
and unaffected manner.
Fell 5000 Feet.
For about five months, from April
until September, 1918, Bott was in
enemy country. After escaping from
prison he had to get along as best
he could. He got to be a good deal
of an actor while in the enemy
try, and gave such a good imitation
of a demented mar at M stage of the
game that he was sent from prison
in Nazareth to Constinople.
at all began when I fell out of the
clouds from a height Of 5000 feet
and bumped my nose after a fight
with a boche plane" the young cap
tain said. cit wasn't exactly a fight
with one plane, either. l was chas-
ing a boche who had a machine nearly
as fast as mine, and by the time l
caught up with him we were 40 miles
behind the enemy lines and above
some rough, rocky, partly wooded
hills.
q" was just beginning to pepper the
boche when two enemy scout planes
| had not seer dropped from the
clouds and shot me up. | whirled
and crashed down, and the next thing
| knew it was moonlight and my leg
was paining me like the deuce, held
down by part of my engine. lie was
a very lonely, desert spot, and l fig
ured that hill would be my last rest
ing place. l figured they would name
it after ne.
/" Whether fortunately OF not a bunch
of Arabs came along, sort of bandits,
| suppose, and found me. AS far as
l could make out, after they lifted
the engine off me they were tossing
up to decide whether they should kill
me or turn me over to the Turks and
get some backsheesh, which is a pop
ular pastime in that part of the coun-
try. They used to say that with $4,000
you could bride the grand vizar him
self.
"While they were drawing lots to
see whether l should live or die a
party of Turkish soldiers came along
and chased the Arabs off, but detain-
ed me. In fact, they were decent
enough to take me to an Austrian
hospital at Afion-Kara-Hisson, about
70 miles from our base at Jaffa. 1t
was three weeks before l could get
around much, and then l f~oolishly
tried to escape. My leg was so bad
that the attempt was a foozle and the
guards caught me up before l had
gone very far.
"Finally I was taken to Nazareth
and put in a criminal Jail with muir
derers and brigands, all filthy brutes.
At first | vas put in an underground
dungeon, with one other man, an Ar
alb, whose great penchant was chas-
ing coolies. There We're other Eng
lish prisoners there, and we We're all
treated pretty badly. Our food con-
sisted of a bowl of soup and a loaf
of bread each.
Several of us planned to escape
and tried several stunts, o of
which worked with the Turks, until
l selfishly hit on the scheme of be-
coming insane. l was very crazy for
a few days, and then the boss of the
Jail shook his head seriously and said
he would have to send me to CONTAIN
tinople.
"We began to rumble across the
desert in a slow train, and l decided
to drop off at the first convenient
way station and cut acros lots for
Jaffa. We We're quite near C%onstan-
tinople before an opportunity came,
and then there was an %opportune
train kreck, and l walked away and
hid in among the rocks.
DOnned a Bought Uniform.
"When nipht came met a Turk-