World War, 1914-1918 -- Prisoners and prisons, Turkish
We found, too, that the French had managed to establish the custom of
taking in a newspaper, “The Hilal,” a German edited, Levantine rag,
which did, at any rate, publish the German _communiqués_. So we began
once more to look upon the war and the outside world through that dim
glass which was our only window. Later on we had various other means,
but not up till then.
In addition to the large central sitting-room, where four of us had to
sleep, there were three small bedrooms on the same floor, also a
kitchen, a latrine, and a tiny paved room where the shower-bath hung.
This was an amateur one made out of a kerosine oil tin, and its
existence argued virtue in one Armenian at least. The Turks had not
stolen it. It was of no use to them.
Derrick and I, who had been taken together, were now in a mess of eleven
persons, quite a sizeable community. We began to wake up and make plans
to learn French and to teach English; but that night we slept like
logs.
CHAPTER IV
THE WANK
We had now a breathing space. We had reached the place where the Turks
meant to keep us, and though we had yet to learn that Turks never
continue to follow the same policy for very long, we now had time to
settle in as comfortably as circumstances permitted.
Our space was strictly circumscribed. There was the series of rooms
already described as belonging to the officers, and there was the paved
courtyard, perhaps thirty yards square. This was common to the officers
and about 150 N.C.O.’s and men. Officers were not allowed to visit the
men’s dormitories. On the east side of the courtyard was a church,
locked up and sealed. Through its windows we could see that a quantity
of books were stored there. On the north were further monastic buildings
in two stories. We were not allowed upstairs, but the men were allowed
the use of a kitchen on the ground floor. The western side consisted of
a few sheds and a high wall, and the southern side held all the rooms
occupied both by officers and men. These were all two-storied buildings.
The Wank being built on a hill-side with the ground falling away to the
south, the officers’ quarters got no sunshine, for their only window
which looked in that direction was in the landing at the head of the
stairs. From there we could see the town of Angora covering its steep
hill, and crowned by a great rambling castle. Below the southern window
there was a second courtyard, into which a wide gate opened, which was
apparently used as a pen for the monastic flocks at night; and below
that again was a third yard, probably used as a pound for their cattle.
The whole group of buildings and yards was surrounded by a high wall.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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