e many other commandants, both here
and in Germany, he did, amidst the various difficulties, what he could.
As he is, alas, now dead, we may perhaps quote the words he addressed to
the men in his care at the Christmas of 1916. It is a strange reflection
that it might have injured his position to quote this fine and simple
message during his life-time. Colonel Panzera wrote:

I am sorry that the size of the camp prevents my seeing you all,
which I should do if it were smaller and thus possible. It would
be a mockery to wish you a "Happy Christmas," I am afraid, but I
wish you as happy a one as is possible under the circumstances.
I most earnestly wish you a happier New Year. May the New Year
bring Peace and restore you to all dear to you. I hope that
prosperity and happiness may come to you in the future, and may
in time obliterate the memory of the present period of sadness.

I should like to take the opportunity of saying how much I
appreciate the general good behaviour of the camps during the
past year. There have been little lapses, as there must always
be in a mixed community of 25,000 people, but on the whole the
conduct has been extremely good, which has been a great help to
those placed over you. Once more I wish you as good a Christmas
as possible and a better New Year.

FOOD DIFFICULTIES.

The food question also becomes increasingly serious in the camps, as it
does in prisons. I confess I feel we ought to ration ourselves very
strictly before we cut down the supplies of our prisoners, criminal or
otherwise. "The reduced diet," wrote Fenner Brockway of his prison
experiences, "is one of semi-starvation, and every prisoner is becoming
thin and physically weak." (_Labour Leader_, September 6. 1917.) Those
who care to inquire of the wives of interned men will learn their side
of the case as regards the effect of changed conditions in the camps.
The sad feature is that the increasing rigour comes upon men already
weakened, both physically and mentally, by long confinement. The
original published statement of Sir Edward (now Viscount) Grey [Misc. 7
(1915), p. 23] no longer obtains. The food is, of course, very
different, and may not be supplemented.

TWO KINDS OF RUMOUR AND SOME REALITY.

I have not cared to quote adverse "unofficial information and rumours,"
either as regards our own or other detention camps. What some adverse
critics say about o