The Better Germany in War Time: Being Some Facts Towards FellowshipPicton, Harold W. (Harold Williams)
History
The Better Germany in War Time: Being Some Facts Towards Fellowship
Picton, Harold W. (Harold Williams)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Hospitals, charities, etc.; World War, 1914-1918 -- Prisoners and prisons, German
“There has been no change in the sleeping accommodation since the last
visit, except that, owing to the smaller number of men, there is now
more room than before.... The men seemed much happier and more contented
than at the time of our last visit.” (Officers’ camp, Donington Hall.)
The last quotation recalls the once famous charges as to the excessive
luxury of Donington Hall. In every country the same kind of protest
arises as to the luxurious treatment of prisoners, and this is declared
a scandal in view of the inhuman policy of the enemy. In every country
is to be found the type of patriot who feels that all is lost if it can
be proved that he has treated an enemy too well. The hubbub about
Donington Hall led to the appointment of a Commons delegation to visit
various camps, and to a report in the _Times_ (April 26, 1915). In this
report the Hall is described as “a large, bare house situated in a
hollow.... The style of furnishing was that of a sergeant’s mess.” There
was one piano, provided at the prisoners’ expense. The billiard tables
and other accessories imagined by perfervid patriots vanish into thin
air.
Dyffryn Aled Officers’ camp in North Wales is described in the same
account as “an inaccessible, gloomy, mildewed-looking house, with all
the windows on the front side covered with iron bars. It was previously
used as a private lunatic asylum. The kitchen seemed about the best room
in the house.... There are no fixed baths, but the officers’ valets
carry hot water from the kitchen for hip baths.” As regards the site of
Dyffryn Aled it is only fair to quote the U.S. report: “The situation of
the house, in a romantic valley among the Welsh mountains, is fine and
healthy.” But even in April, 1916, the bathing arrangements remained
primitive: “Each officer has his tin tub.” One would certainly not wish
to make any hardship of this, yet it is perhaps as well to recall the
U.S. reports on Friedberg and Crefeld in May and April, 1915,
respectively. “The room containing the shower-nozzles would ... do
credit to a club or hotel of the first class.” (See p. 23.) At Crefeld:
“The bathroom which I saw has a floor space of about 1,500 square feet,
one-half of which, drained in the centre, lies under some 20 shower
nozzles. There are a couple of porcelain tubs in the other half, and in
the centre there is a large stove. Hot and cold water is available. The
British officers were enthusiastic in their praise of this room.” (P.
13.)
A FRIENDLY THOUGHT.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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