nians are the matrix of the Russian left flank, and if, through
lack of support and the necessities of life, they go out of the war, the
solidity of the Russian left is destroyed and the capture of Odessa
probably foreordained.

A few hundred million dollars would probably keep Rumania fighting for
another year. It is a conservative estimate to state that it will take
ten times that amount, and at least six months' delay, to place the
equivalent number of trained American troops on any fighting front.

[Sidenote: Every assistance should be given.]

It is, I think, obvious that from the point of view of sound military
policy, as well as moral and ethical obligation, every American whose
heart is in this war should be behind the President of the United States
without reserve, in any effort he may make or recommend, in extending
assistance to Rumania in this the hour of her greatest peril.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: Germany's treatment of prisoners of war.]

Prisoners taken by the Germans were overworked and disciplined with much
insolence and cruelty. For infractions of their iron rules the Germans
inflicted the severest penalties. The food supplied was insufficient and
of very poor quality, so that men might actually have starved had it not
been for boxes sent from home through the Red Cross. In the following
chapter, a Canadian soldier, who finally escaped after three
unsuccessful attempts, describes the life of prisoners and other workers
in the Westphalian coal mines.

SIXTEEN MONTHS A WAR PRISONER

PRIVATE "JACK" EVANS

Copyright, Forum, May 1918.

I was in Germany as prisoner of war from June, 1916, to September, 1917.

[Sidenote: Captured at third battle of Ypres.]

[Sidenote: A giant shell blows up the dugout.]

My story starts with my capture at the third battle of Ypres. The Fourth
Canadian Mounted Rifles were in the front line at Zillebeke. We had been
terribly pounded by German artillery, in fact, almost annihilated. After
a hideous night, morning, June 2, 1916, dawned beautiful and clear. At
5.30 I turned in for a little sleep with four other fellows who made up
the machine-gun crew with me. Lance Corporal Wedgewood, in charge of the
gun, remained awake to clean it. I had just got into a sound sleep when
it seemed as if the whole crust of the earth were torn asunder in one
mammoth explosion, and I found myself buried beneath sandbags and loose
earth. I escaped