T he B ritish
P risoner of W ar
Vol. I.— No. 3 M A R C H , 1918 Price Threepence
Contents.
PAGE
Notes of the Month ------ 25
Epitaph - .................................................26
Prisoners in B ulgaria.................................................27
Prisoners in P r i s o n .......................................- 29
Conference of Care Committees - - - - 30
The Cemetery for Allied Prisoners, Munster - 31
Prisoners in Parliament ----- 32
Australian P ris o n e rs .................................................33
Food Parcels . . . . . . 33
Begulations for Dental Treatment . . . 34
A fio n -K a ra -H is s a r.................................................34
Report on Our Stores Department . . . 35
Food from Neutral Countries - 35
Correspondence - - - - - - 31, 35, 36
Notices to Subscribers.
All communications regarding the contents o f this journal should
be addressed to the EDITOR, “ The British Prisoner of W ar,”
4, Thurloe Place, London, S.W .7.
Annual subscriptions and orders for single copies, as well as
communications relating to advertisements, should be directed
to the MANAGER, “ The British Prisoner o f W ar,” at the
same address.
“ The British Prisoner o f W ar " may be ordered of any bookseller,
bookstall or newsagent. Trade orders will be supplied by the
Publishers, Messrs. NISBET & Co., Ltd., 22, Berners Street,
London, W .l, who will be glad to hear o f any instance in which
difficulty is experienced in obtaining the fulfilm ent of orders.
POINTS.
Please note that the Personal Parcel coupon is only issued
to the next of kin of a prisoner or to some person named
by the next of kin. In the latter case the person so
named must present a letter from the next of kin,
addressed to the Central Prisoners of War Committee
or to the Care Committee concerned authorising, him or
her to receive the coupon.
It is earnestly requested that Subscribers, when sending
remittances, should in every instance send the name,
rank and Regiment of the Prisoners in whom they are
interested. This would greatly facilitate the work of
the Central Committee, expedite the sending of receipts and
the final application of the money in the proper direction.
Subscribers are also requested to notify the Central
Committee and all Care Committees of any change of
address of Prisoners at the earliest possible moment in
order that food parcels may be correctly despatched.'
Remittances to Warrant Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers
and men interned in Holland will be regulated in the
same manner as for prisoners of tear interned in
Switzerland. No money may be remitted without a
certificate of authority signed by the Senior British
Officer at the place of internment. Will Care Com
mittees kindly take note of this, and act accordingly ?
Special attention is drawn to the fact that the War Office
has made arrangements for the free dental treatment of all
prisoners of war. % The regulations will be found on page 34.
Notes of the Month.
At the suggestion of its founder, Lady Grant Duff,
the Bureau de Secours at Berne has become affiliated
to the Central Prisoners of W ar Committee. Our Com
mittee has made itself financially responsible for the
Bureau at Berne in the sense that it guarantees pay
ments for bread supplies by Care Committees and
officers’ relatives. I t also assists financially with the
g'eneral administrative or other expenses of the Bureau
when required to do so. The Committee of the
Bureau works in the fullest harmony with the Cen
tral Committee, and takes orders for bread only when
such orders are approved by our Committee. Further
we assist the Bureau by conducting with the W ar Office
and various authorities in London large negotiations
regarding the flour supply and other important matters.
These arrangements have been necessitated by changed
war conditions, and by the discovery th at there was a
considerable amount of overlapping in the bread supply.
The Central Committee, however, does not attem pt to
interfere in any way with the internal administration
of the Bureau, and has indeed neither the power nor the
wish to limit its independence.
Forty-nine British prisoners of war from Turkey
arrived at Waterloo Station on Monday, February 18th.
They were m et by the Central Prisoners Reception Com
mittee, and by the Ambulance Column, London District.
As the train came into the station the men pressed to
the windows with smiling faces. Their hats were stuck
full of paper flowers, and badges were pinned into
their coats, souvenirs of the welcome shown them by
th& peoples of Switzerland and France as they passed
through. Most of them were dressed in the clothes
provided by the Turkish Government—a kind of neutral
tinted and rather loosely woven coat and trousers. They
had been on their journey for a very long time, some ol
them having been assembled in February 1917 at Psa-
matia for their journey to England. Now after immense
delays they were overjoyed to be back home again. All
of them had spent ten weeks at Mauthausen in Austria,
where, they said, their fellow Italian prisoners had
shown them extreme kindness. Only three of the pri
soners had been taken in Mesopotamia; the rest had
been captured at the Dardanelles or at Gaza. They
had all been repatriated on account of being unfit for
further service, and among them were fourteen stretcher
cases, and a number of men who were able to walk
with the help of crutches and sticks and the kindly
arms of orderlies. Adeline Duchess of Bedford and
Lord Sandwich walked down the train and distributed
the cards bearing the King’s message of welcome. The
rest of the Committee gave the men daffodils, and talked to
as many of the new arrivals as was possible in the short
time before they got out of the train and were rolled
away to King George’s Hospital in the waiting ambu
lances and motors.