ood. A Russian can live on much less than a Britisher, but they
literally starved to death on what the Germans gave them. They were
made to work, and when they could go no longer and fell down from sheer
weakness the Guard would beat them till they died. I have seen this
happen again and again, and there was an average of fifteen deaths
every day among the Russians alone. Our parcels came just in time to
save the strongest of us, but scores of the weaker ones died. But just
here let me explain the system used by the Red Cross for getting food
to the boys in the prison camps. As soon as a new prisoner reaches the
camp he is given a card which he fills in and sends to the Red Cross
Headquarters in London. This card contains his name and number, and
the number of the camp that he is in. It takes about two months to get
the first parcel through; after that he received six food parcels and
two of tobacco each month, and once in six months they send him a
complete outfit of clothes, from overcoat to boots, also a parcel of
toilet articles, such as toothbrush, shaving outfit, soap, etc. From
the time these parcels reach the Dutch border, they are handled by a
staff of our own prisoners, so there is no danger of their going
astray. The Germans examine the parcels before they are given out to
make sure that they do not contain maps or compasses for the prisoners;
that is the only time they handle them.

These parcels mean life and a small degree of comfort to the boys, so
you can imagine how they are looked forward to. The Red Cross saved my
life and the lives of thousands of our boys; and they deserve honour
and support from every person who calls himself a loyal citizen of any
Allied country. I shall never forget when my first parcel came; I had
been in camp two months and I had failed eighteen pounds. One of the
boys came into my hut and told me there were two parcels for me. I
told him to stop fooling, that his joke was stale. But he said, "No,
it's straight goods this time, here are the tickets"--so I rushed off
to where the parcel office was and got in line. Pretty soon my turn
came and I handed in my tickets. A big German brought out the parcels,
and while he was censoring them I was figuring on what I was going to
have to eat, but imagine my disappointment when he pushed over the
parcels and I found they contained nothing but clothing. There were
two suits of underwear, two pairs of socks, two shirts and