the International Red Cross Committee, but the exchange of
correspondence is not generally very active.

_Wishes of the Interned._--Some of the women express a wish to see their
husbands more often, at least once a month; others wish to see their
sons or brothers who are prisoners at Maadi or at Sidi Bishr. This being
a legitimate and comprehensible desire, the English Government has
several times already allowed the husbands to come from these camps (4
hours distant by train) to spend three or four days with their wives in
the Citadel. A part of the building containing 12 rooms has been
reserved for these visits. But it would clearly be impossible to permit
these indulgences often, as they entail considerable expense, and
require much organisation and surveillance.

_Repatriation._--Some of the women beg to be sent back to Turkey, which
the British Government has already offered to do. Many, on the other
hand, prefer to remain in Cairo. The American charge d'affaires in
Egypt, M. Knabenschuh, is considering this question. He has visited the
camp several times, and has transmitted different propositions of the
English Government to the Sublime Porte. The first offer was to
repatriate the interned women and children by means of an American
vessel, which would land them at the port of Mersina in Asia Minor. The
second was to take them back to Turkey in an English hospital ship,
which should at the same time carry medical supplies, food and clothing
to the English prisoners in Asia Minor, and bring away about 25 English
ladies who had been made prisoners in Mesopotamia. Finally, the English
Government offered to repatriate the Turkish women without any
reciprocity conditions. Unhappily, up to now all these proposals have
borne no fruit. The English Government sincerely desires to be freed
from the maintenance and surveillance of these people, whom it took
under its care merely for reasons of humanity.

_Special Inquiry at the Citadel Camp._--During our visit to the Maadi
Camp, Dr. Suleiman Bey, head physician at Taif, a town of the Hedjaz,
told us that he had personally nothing to complain of in the camp
treatment, but that his wife and children, interned in the Cairo
Citadel, were suffering greatly from the conditions there. What he
especially criticised was the diet and the medical attendance. These
complaints, made in much detail, seemed to us to deserve a specific
inquiry, and we went again to the Citadel next