The Grenadier Guards in the Great War of 1914-1918, Vol. 3 of 3Ponsonby, Frederick
History
The Grenadier Guards in the Great War of 1914-1918, Vol. 3 of 3
Ponsonby, Frederick
Great Britain. Army. Grenadier Guards; World War, 1914-1918 -- Regimental histories -- Great Britain
(4) A separate supply of bread or biscuits, according to
season, is sent to the Camps by the Central Prisoners of War
Committee, and each man should receive 4 lbs. per week. In
future we shall have to pay for this, and it will cost us 8s.
per man per month (based on 7s. 6d. per four weeks).
(5) A complete outfit of clothing is sent out to each man
twice yearly.
3. We classify our subscribers as follows:
(_a_) _Adopters_, who subscribe for parcels to specified and
named men, paying £2: 5s. per quarter for each fortnightly
parcel. In some cases an adopter pays £4: 10s. for two, or £6:
15s. for three fortnightly parcels all sent to the same man;
in other cases an adopter takes over two men or three men, or
more, and pays for one or more fortnightly parcels each. The
names of the senders cannot, owing to shortage of labour, be
written on parcels, and the subscriber writes to the prisoner
to let him know what is being done for him.
(_b_) _Friends or relations_, who subscribe monthly, or
occasionally, for the tea, tobacco, or bread, at the prices
above quoted, or pay 7s. occasionally when they wish to
provide for one of the regular parcels.
(_c_) _Givers of donations_, of various amounts to be used as
we think best.
_N.B._--It is possible for relations of prisoners by applying
to the Regimental Orderly Room to get allotments made to
them out of the prisoner's pay, in order to enable them to
subscribe to us. This can only be done when a prisoner writes
to say he wishes it, and defines the amount of the allotment.
These instructions were altered several times, and new rules and
conditions were added. Soon after the official system came into
force, there was an unfortunate hitch about the bread. The Central
Prisoners of War Committee, which had undertaken the supply, found
that the arrangements they had made for its manufacture and despatch
from Copenhagen were anything but satisfactory; complaints from the
prisoners showed that the system was not working well. Steps were at
once taken by the Central Prisoners of War Committee to rectify the
fault, and afterwards the supply was carried out satisfactorily from
Copenhagen and Berne.
One prisoner, who wished to inform his friends of the true state of
affairs, and who feared his remarks would not pass the Censor, wrote
on a postcard, "1 Corinthians iv. 11." The German Censor's biblical
knowledge was fortunately weak, and he allowed the card to go. The
text referred to was:
Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst,
and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain
dwelling-place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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