ents which follow, and which were made to me while I was a
prisoner of war in Germany, are not from picked soldiers who happened
to have sensational stories. They were the only men whom I met who
were prisoners in the early days.

Being blind myself, I could not, of course, see the men I was speaking
to, but their tone impressed me very much as being men who had
suffered in silence.

It was necessary for me to study very carefully what they said and
impress it on my memory; and I have committed their statements to
writing immediately on my release, for to carry written statements
over the frontier was entirely out of the question.

I have put down nothing which was not told to me; neither have I tried
to embellish or enlarge upon the statements made, or frame the words
of the men in any way that might give an exaggerated impression of
what occurred.

It is quite possible, however, that one or two incidents which I have
reported from one man may be part of the story of one of the others.
But it can be taken as an absolute fact that, taken as a whole, the
statements are a true recital of these men's own description of their
experience.

The men were in no way excited. I obtained the information when
chatting in the ordinary way over a pipe of tobacco, whenever the men
had an opportunity of coming to my room to have a chat.

THE STORY OF PRIVATE ----, WEST KENT REGIMENT

"I was captured at Mons, sir. Been here over two years now.
Things are not so bad now as they were at first.

"I've seen some things which I shan't easily forget. I've been
keeping them to myself because we dare not talk of them.

"Some of the fellows have had a terrible time. When the war is
over any German who is met in England by any prisoners of war
will have a rough passage. There won't be any need to hold
ourselves back any longer. My goodness, sir, they'll never get
away alive!

"Not long after I was captured 70 English soldiers were taken
away from the Lager one day. They never knew where they were
going. They were taken to a munition factory; and when they found
out where they were they passed the word along to refuse to work.

"When the Germans told them what they had to do, they refused.
Their guards threatened them, and said it would be the worse for
them if they didn't; but they wouldn't budge.

"Then they were taken out and made to stand in a row against a
wall; and a fi