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
At Ruhleben there are (with the exception of some negroes) English only.
The English receive many packages. The German authorities have been
tempted to rely on those packages increasingly. That is the state of
things revealed in Dr. A. E. Taylor’s report of June 14, 1916. [Miscel.
No. 21 (1916).]
A review of the present ration of the prisoners of war indicates
that it is the aim of the ‘Kriegsernährungsamt’ to supply a
ration which shall be physiologically adequate, though
professedly containing little more than enough to cover minimal
requirements; and it is believed that the official prisoners’
ration contains as much as the daily food of many millions of
German subjects. There is no question that the official prison
ration is an adequate ration from the standpoint of animal
nutrition. In addition to this allotted camp ration the
prisoners possess the food sent in from abroad as addenda.
In the case of the Russian prisoners, these extra food stuffs
sent in from abroad are small in amount; in the case of the
French, moderate; in the case of the English, large. In all the
prison camps that I have visited it is the practice to prepare
food for the number of men in the camp, irrespective of
nationality, in accordance with the menu of Professor Backhaus.
As a rule, the British prisoners take little or none of the
food, and their share is eaten by prisoners of other
nationalities. In Ruhleben the state of affairs at present
existing has convinced the interned civilians that the situation
is, so to speak, reversed: that the German authorities seem to
regard the foodstuffs sent in from abroad as the regular diet of
the interned men, and the camp allotments as the addenda.
It is not surprising that “the interned men are deeply dissatisfied with
the present state of affairs.” The German authorities, finding that at
least half the total number of the interned at Ruhleben subsist largely
upon private packages, have made a “sharp reduction in the amount of
foodstuff allotted to the camp.” I have no wish to defend this
proceeding, but it must be allowed that to the Government of a blockaded
country there is a great temptation to cut down supplies when this will
not be a danger to the prisoners themselves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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