as in a
state of comparative hunger.... He could not see what advantage
there was in making out that the case of our prisoners was worse
than it really was, and it seemed to him little short of an act
of cruelty to the relations of these unfortunate men to lead
them to suppose that our men were not only in a state of misery,
but in a state of starvation.--(_Morning Post_, June 1, 1916).

There is no question either that nerve strain and monotony accentuate
the critical attitude towards food. Here is an extract from Mr.
Jackson's report on Senne (September 11, 1915): "There were some
complaints, as usual, in regard to the food. I had arrived in the camp
just after the midday meal was served, and while some of the men said
that the meat had been bad, and they wished that I had an opportunity to
taste it, others said that the meat had been particularly good, because
the officers had heard that I was coming. None of them knew that I had
actually eaten a plate of their soup and had found it excellent, both
palatable and nutritious, and that my visit to this particular camp had
not been announced in advance. The menu for the day had been made out at
the beginning of the week, and could not have been changed after my
presence in the camp was known, and I had a bowl of the soup which was
left over after the prisoners had been served." (Miscel. 19 [1915], page
41.)

It is sometimes forgotten that complaints as to food are frequent in all
institutions, schools, colleges, workhouses, hospitals, etc. I have
before me a recent letter from an Englishman in a consumptive sanatorium
in his own country: "I exist as best I can, and the less said about it
the better. I am no better, and only glad that I am not worse. I at
least don't feel so ill as I did a week ago, although I have lost 31/2
lbs. since then. The food is atrocious, and my appetite small. The
fellows here buy quite two-thirds of what they eat, otherwise they too
would lose in weight. No good comes of making complaints ... nothing is
ever done." Things _may_ be so, I am not a great believer in
institutions, but certainly independent investigation is needed to
warrant any conclusion. The same I feel to be the case as to complaints
of feeding, whether in British or German camps.

Each side, too, is also unreasonably certain of its own justice and of
the injustice of the others. Thus the Social Democrat, Herr Stuecklen,
speaking in the Reichstag debat