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Show Life in Prison Camps & 2 S Many Abuses Righted They would enjoy the sensation of exclusiveness and dub life. AwM mSn est'' Starvation Diet at Ruhleben; British Officers Enjoy Many Delicacies From Home. By JAMES W. GERARD, American Ambassador to the German Imperial Court, July 28, 913, to February Feb-ruary 4, 1917. Copyright, 1917, by the Public Ledger Company. IN RUHLEBEN the educated prisoners prison-ers volunteered to teach the ignorant; ig-norant; two hundred and ninety-seven ninety-seven different educational courses were offered to those who desired to improve their minds. A splendid orchestra or-chestra was organized, a dramatic society so-ciety whichgave plays in French and one which gave plays in English and another one which gave operas. On New Year's day, 1916, I attended at Ruhleben Ruhle-ben a really wonderful performance of the pantomime of "Cinderella," and in January, 1917, a performance of "The Mikado" in a theater under one of the grandstands. In these productions, produc-tions, of course, the female parts were taken by young men, and the Bcenery, costumes and accessories were all made by the prisoners. There was a camp library of more than 5000 volumes Bent over by tho British government, and a reading and meeting hall erected by the American Young Men's Christian Association. There was even a system of postal scr- vice, with special stamps, so that a prisoner in one barracks could write to a friend in another and have a letter delivered by the camp postal authorities. authori-ties. The German authorities had not hired the entire race track from the Race Track association, so that I made a special contract with the race track owners and hired from them the infield in-field and other portions not taken over by German authorities. Hero the prisoners pris-oners had tennie courts and played hockey, football and cricket and held athletic, games. Expert dentists in the camp took care of tho poorer prisoners, as did an oculist hired by mo with British Brit-ish funds, and glasses from the same funds were given the poorer prisonors. Special Accommodations. The prisoners who needed a little better bet-ter nourishment than that afforded by the camp diet and their parcels from England, could obtain cards giving them the right to eat in the casino or camp (Continued on Page Four.) "My Four Years in Germany" (Continued from Pace One.) official restaurant, where they were allowed al-lowed a certain indicated amount of wine or beer with their meals; finally arrangements were arrived at by which the German guards left the camp, simply sim-ply guarding the camp from the outside, and the policing of the camp was taken over by the camp policcvdepartment, under un-der the charge of the prison camp commander com-mander and committee. The worst features, fea-tures, of course, were food and the housing. Human nature seems always to be the same. Establishment of clubs seems inherent to the Anglo-Saxon 'nature. 'na-ture. Ten or more persons would combine com-bine together and erect a sort of wooden shed against tho brick walls of a bar-I racks, hire some poorer person to put on j a white jacket and be addressed as j il steward,' J put in the shed a few deck j chairs and a table, and enjoy the sensation sensa-tion of exclusiveness and club life thereby given. Owing to 'the failure of Germany and England to come to an agreement for a long time as to the release of captured cap-tured crews of ships there were in Ruhleben men as' old as 75 years and boys as young a3 15. There were in all between fifty and sixty of these ships' bovs. They lived in a barracks by themselves, them-selves, and under the supervision of a ship's officer, who volunteered to look after them as a sort of a monitor. They were taught navigation by older prisoners, pris-oners, and, I imagine, were rather benefited bene-fited by their stay in the camp. I finally fi-nally made arrangoments by which these bo's were released from England and Germany. With the exception of the officers arrh crews of the ships, prisoners were not interned who were over 55. The British government was generous in the allowance of money for Ruhleben Ruhle-ben prisoners. Skimping Rations. The amount allowed by the ierman government to the camp commanders for feeding the prisoners was extremely small, only GO pfennigs a day. At first manv of the camp commanders made contracts with caterers for the feeding of the prisoners, and, as the caterers' profits had to come out of this very small sum, the amount of food which the remainder purchased for the prisoners prison-ers was small iudeed. As the war went on the prisouers ' department of the war ofiice tried to induce the camp commanders to abandon the contractor j system and purchase ' supplies them- : selves. A sort of convention of camp commanders was held in Berlin, which I attended. L-octures were there given on food and its purchase and methods of disinfecting prisoners, on providing against typhus and ou housing and other oth-er snbjrcts. A daily lunch was served, supposed to be composed of the exact rations given at the prison camps. The schedules of food, etc., made out : by the camp commanders and furnished :o foreign correspondents were often nnt followed in practice. I know on one occasion when I was nt the -camp of Doeheritz, the camp commander gave me his schedule of food for the week. This pv'-'ided that soup with pieces oi nt-ui v. :) - ti l""4 vn "ti f T"' n e - visit, but on visiting the camp kitchen I found that the contractor was serving fish instead of meat. Some of the camp commanders not only treated their prisoners pris-oners kindly, but introduced manufactures manufac-tures of furniture, etc., to help the prisoners pris-oners pass their time. The camps of Krosscn and Gottingen deserve special i mention. . At Giessen the camp commander com-mander had permitted the erection of a barracks in which certain prisoners who were electrical experts gave lessons in electrical fitting, etc., to their fellow prisoners. There was also a studio in this camp, where prisoners with artistic talent were furnished with paints and allowed to work at painting and the like. As more and more people were called to the front in Germany greater use was made 'of the prisoners, and in the summer of 1916 virtually all the prisoners pris-oners were compelled to work outside ! of the camps. They were paid a small j extra sum for this, a few cents a day, and, as a rule, were benefited- by the change of scene and occupation. The : Russians, especially, became very useful use-ful to the Germans as agricultural laborers. la-borers. Starvation at Ruhleben. ' Professor Alonzo E. Taylor of the University of Pennsylvania, a food expert, ex-pert, and Dr. D. J. McCarthy, also of Philadelphia, joined my staff in 1916 and proved most efficient and fearless inspectors of prison camps. Dr. Taylor could use the terms calorics, proteins and so on as readily as German experts, ex-perts, and at a greater rate of speed. His report showing that the official diet of the prisoners in Ruhleben was a starvation diet incensed the German authorities au-thorities to such fury that they for-baHe for-baHe htm to revisit Ruhleben. Professor Buckhaus, the German expert, ex-pert, agreed with him in soma of his findings. I do not know what will happen to the professor, who seemed 1 willing to do his best for the prisoners. ! He wrote a booklet on the prison camps i which he asked permission to dedicate to me, but the war office, which published pub-lished the book, refused to allow him to make this dedication. Tt was a real pleasure to see the way in which Dr. Taylor carried ou his work -of food inspection, in-spection, and his work, as well as that of the other doctors sent from America Ameri-ca to join my sttff'f, Drs. Furbush, McCarthy, Mc-Carthy, Ruler. Harms, Webster and Luginbuhl, did much to better camp conditions. Dr. Caldwell, the sanitary expert, known for his great work in Serbia now, I believe, head of the hospital at Pittsburg reported that the prison diet, "while of good quality, and, perhaps, per-haps, sufficient in quantity by weight, is lacking in the essential elements which contribute to the making of a well-balanced and satisfactory diet. It is lacki ng particularly in fat and protein pro-tein content, which is especially desirable desira-ble during the colder months of the year. There is considerable doubt whether this diet alone, without being supplemented by the articles of food received by the prisoners from their homes, would in any way be suf- i ficient to maintain the prisoners in j health and strength.'' I Dr. Caldwell also visited Wittenberg j and found the eommaniier by tempera- ! ment, etc., unfitted for such a position, j The Germans, as Dr. Taylor has 1 pointed out. tried tn feed prisoners on' schedule, like horses. There is, however, how-ever, a- nervous discrn.inatinu in eating in man: a diet, scient if n-a !!y fitted to keep him alive, may fail because of its inert nmnotonv. Think of li.in as the prisoners nf I ever having anything (except black bread) which cannot be eaten with a epoon. Officer prisoners, after matters had settled down and after several bitter contests which I had with the German authorities, were fairly well treated. There was; as in the case of the camps for the privates, a great difference between be-tween camps and a great difference be-between be-between camp commanders. Mr.- Jackson Jack-son did most of the visiting of the officers' of-ficers' camps. In many camps the officers of-ficers were allowed a tennis court and other amusements, light wine or beer at meals, but the length of the war had a bad effect on the mental condition of many of the officers. Exchange of Wounded and Sick, A great step forward was made when arrangements were entered into between be-tween Germany and England whereby wounded and sick officers and men, when passed by the Swiss commission, which visited both countries, were sent to Switzerland sent still as prisoners of war subject to return to Germany or England, respectively. But the opportunity op-portunity afforded by change of food and scene, as well as reunion of families, fami-lies, saved many a life. By arrangements arrange-ments between the two countries, also, the severely wounded prisoners were set free. I believe that this exchange of the heavily wounded between the Germans and the Russians was the factor which prevented the entrance of Sweden into the war. These wounded men traversed the whole length of Sweden in the railway, and the spectacle afforded to the Swedish population of these poor stumps of humanity, victims of wrar, has quite effectually kept the Swedish population from an attack of unnecessary unneces-sary war fever. Officers and men who tried to es- : rape were not very severely punished in Germany, unless they had broken or stolou something in their attempt. Officers were usually subjected to a jail confinement for a period, and then often sent to a sort of punitive camp. Such a one .was situatod in one of the ring forts surrounding the city of Kus-trin, Kus-trin, which I visited in September, 1916. There the officers had no opportunity oppor-tunity for exercise except in a very small courtyard or on tho roof, which was covered with grass, of the building build-ing in which they were confined. On my visit, however, 1 arranged for the construction of a tennis court outside. The British officers in Germany virtually vir-tually subsisted on their parcels received re-ceived from home, anil, during the end of my stay, a much better tea could be had with the prison officers than with the camp commander. The prisoners pris-oners had real tea and marmalade and white bread to offer, luxuries which had long since disappeared from all German tables. On the whole, the quarters given to the officers' prisons in Germany were not satisfactory and were not of the kind that should have been offered to officer prisoners of war. Tv.o Million Prisoners. At the time 1 left Germany there were nearly two million prisoners of war in the empire, of whom about ten thousand were Russian officers, nine thousand French officers and about one thousand British officers. As a rule, our inspectors found the hospitals, where tho prisoners of war were, in as good condition as could be expected. 1 think this was largely due to the fact that so many doctors in Germany are dews. The people who arc of the Jewish race are people of gentle instincts. in-stincts. In these hospitals a better diet was given to the prisoners. There were, of course, in addition to the regular regu-lar hospitals, hospitals where the sc-verel sc-verel v wonnded prisoners were sent. Almost uniformly these hospitals were clean and the prisoners were taken care ot". |