The Secrets of a Kuttite: An Authentic Story of Kut, Adventures in Captivity and Stamboul IntrigueMousley, Edward O. (Edward Opotiki)
History
The Secrets of a Kuttite: An Authentic Story of Kut, Adventures in Captivity and Stamboul Intrigue
Mousley, Edward O. (Edward Opotiki)
Al Kut (Iraq) -- History -- Siege, 1915-1916; World War, 1914-1918 -- Prisoners and prisons, Turkish
the Turks and enjoyed outwitting them. Besides, I said the
letter was for his officer. I told him not to approach until
I was seized. Seeing some other privates approaching in the
distance, I beckoned to them with my right hand with some
cigarettes, and rushed towards them. Half a dozen Turks
seized my hand and the cigarettes before I had gone five yards,
in order to interrupt me from communicating to the Germans
approaching. They did not notice, however, that as I waved
my right hand, I had placed a letter on the bars. The German
from Wilmersdorf, who, instructed by me, had waited close
by, dropped some cigarettes in. The postas rushed up. I
saw a certain cell if the letter was still there; but it had gone.
The Russians, who had breathlessly watched the show from
on top, cheered loudly. It was great fun seeing our lad
return an hour later, on the opposite side of the road, and hear
him shouting, ostensibly to his companion, "Richtig.
Gegeben." I had said certain things, and results could safely
be expected.
Nothing happened the next day until about 8.30. By
the glimmer of a fat candle the Russians and I were playing
chess with some pieces I had had sent out from home. My
eyes were bandaged up, and I had to peer over the board to
play. We were deep in a game, trying to forget our wretched
pains and hunger, when loud stamps, followed by increasing
roars, approached the room. The door was kicked open, and
our commandant, his face black with hate and rage, strode
up to us, struck the board with his fist, and knocked things
off the table. The only way to impress a Turk is with rage
or fear. He had hardly struck the board when I started up,
knocking and kicking the bench and chairs yards away. I
rushed to the door, shut it violently, and cannoned into the
fighting wax doll of a subaltern who accompanied him.
Being bandaged up I had a good excuse for going within an
inch of the commandant's head. I told him things in Turkish
and French, and more in English. We threatened him,
showed him some official letters from England I had kept, and
told him that answers were already on their way to England
about his treatment of our men, and that he was in for it, whatever
happened. It appeared that some kind of inquiry had
been made about our ability to write letters, rather than
about our cause of complaint. However, he had at least to
realize that we weren't children, to be starved to death without
a protest. He had evidently been well reprimanded for my
having contrived to write letters. In fact, my letters had
become quite a propaganda.
Russians flocked into the room, and, once started, they
also developed considerable horse-power, although the poor
brutes were too much kicked to say much.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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