The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-06-04

| | T shall be delightedS' she said. | was formed in London a committee of ! Society Women who, throughout the
 four and a half years of conflict
 made German of1cialdom look very ] dull and stupid.
 ! were an unofficial organization band
 ed together for the purpose of assist l ing prisoners to escape.
 l The Committee was never officially | recognized by the British Govern
 ment. because thers was excellent req | son why 1t should not be, and cer- l tainly you will never find in the nst3
 of honors the names of the few I
 know figuring amongst the recipients | of Orders of the British Empire. The first evidence of its activity of | which have cogniZance occurred one
 dark February afternoon at the Re- | gents Palace Hotel in London. | A young officer looking very i'll, | sat at one of the tables in the dining room drinking tea, when a lady ap | preached him. That she was a lady
 and not one of those too friendly in l dividuals who are so ready to solace l the loneliness of an officer, and are
 to be found in crowded hotels, he 1 knew DOIn Dy ner Speecn ana neT
 manner.
 Excuse me-" she said, you are
 He rose from the table. "Yes,
 madam he said.
 | "I am Lady X.", she said, land I ! have been looking for you all the af- ternoon. You have recently escaped l from Germany
 | "YeS, madam" 1 'I am a member of committee
 interested in prisoners she said, l giving him her card, "and I won l dered whether you would be kind | enough to meet us this evening at | this addresS?"
 "I shall be delighted" she said, | wondering whether the lady was | representative of a Reception Com | mittee or whether she was connected | with the Red Cross.
 Accordingly that night he attend | ed at a house in Belgravia, was shown into a drawing-room, outsids l the door of which stood a man | servant on guard and was introduced 1 to four laides-two of them we'll be-
 yond middle life. He was questioned l about his escape, the measures that | he had taken, and the difficulties he | had to overcome, and a secretary-a | fifth member of the party took | careful note of all that he said. Large l district maps of Germany were pro-
 duced, and he indicated the route he
 had taken from the prison to the | Dutch frontier.
 What Prisoners Required. "Of what are prisoners who are es- l caping mostly in need?" he was ! asked.
 Maps" he replied promptly, "com- I e., -IoI | wire, concentrated foods to sustain them on Journeys. phrase books, wa ter wi s5' to enable them to cross the
 rivers if they cannot swim, files annd German money"
 A few more questions were asked, coffee was brought in, and he was told that his information had been of the greatest assistance. He was
 also informed the object of all this questioning.
 The Committee worked secretly. It appealed for no funds, and yet it dealt with valuable supplies, main \ tained anepisonage corps of it's own, and built up an extraordinary clien- te1e. Because of its impalpable char
 acter, and because inquiries addressed
 to any of its members had invariably
 been met by bland assumption of ignorance and that "My-dear-man.-I
 whatever-you are-talking about?"
 afr which is so disconcerting to the
 patient investigator, i3 is not possible
 to give a consecutive narrative of it's
 character.
 One can only take examples of it's
 work supplied by individual pris-
 oners and their friends. and in th< ] latter case 1t is just as difficult to set any satisfactory information about |
 the part which the Committee played as it is from the Committee itself.
 A prisoner in Karlsruhe wrote a | long letter to his parents describing | the conditions under which he and | his comrades were living. It was an aimless, discursive epistle of about !
 ten pages, containing nothing of a l startling or sensational character, |
 bringing no charges against the Ger mans and innocent of any suggestion |
 that the writer was contemplating
 escape from captivity.
 A Puzzlins Xetter.
 Indeed, the letter was 50 lacking
 in interest that you might wonder at
 all It concluded by saying-"P. S.-l
 I wish you would write to my batman
 asking him if he has my feld-glass-
 es. His number is 75869, and his
 name is Smith,"
 It SO happened that there was an officer from the prisoner battery on
 leave, and he was shown the let ter. T don't know any 75Sss Private
 smith, he said, puzzled. "As mat ter of fact. John had the same bat man as myself. His name is Wilkins, and his regimenta1 number Is 4o3.' T don't understand it at all," said the bewildered mother. John doesn't usually write so stin and formal a letter, and they are generally so very interesting" May I see it?" asked the officer. She handed him the letter, the first two pages of which rsn as follows: Dear Mother-I am glad can for ward to father and you a good &C., count of myself. I would send myself too. but unfortunately. a file of the hefty camp guard is always some where about. It is getting very late, nearly eight o'clock, and raining <>N