o our companies. They
were hopelessly German about it, and did it so many times and very
thoroughly. There were twelve thousand men in the camp and eight
hundred in the laager. The majority were Russian and French with a
fairish sprinkling of Belgians. There were perhaps six hundred British
in the entire camp. The various nationalities were mixed up and each
section given a hut very similar to those American and British troops
occupy in their own countries. A number of smaller camps in the
neighbouring districts were governed from this central one.

For dinner we had shadow soup, so named for obvious reasons. The
recipe in my diary reads: "For eight hundred men, two hundred gallons
of water, one small bag of potatoes and one packet of herbs."

To make matters worse the vegetables issued at this camp were in a
decayed condition and continued to come to us so.

Another staple dinner ration was ham soup. This was the usual two
hundred gallons of water boiled with ten pounds of ham rinds, ten
pounds of cabbage and twenty pounds of potatoes. The ham rind had hair
on it but we used to fish for it at that and considered ourselves
lucky to get a piece. Oatmeal soup, another meal, consisted of two
hundred gallons of water, two pounds of currants and fifty pounds of
oatmeal; chestnut soup, two hundred gallons of water, one hundred
pounds of whole chestnuts and ten pounds of potatoes. It was a
horrible concoction and my diary has: "To be served hot and thrown
out."

Meat soup was two hundred gallons of water, ten pounds of meat, one
small bag of potatoes and ten pounds of vegetables. This was the most
nutritious of the lot. Unfortunately for us, the small portion of meat
and most of the potatoes were given to the French, both because the
cook and all his assistants were Frenchmen and because the authorities
willed it so.

This was usually managed without any apparent unfairness by serving
the British first and the French last, with the result that the one
received a tin full of hot water that was too weak to run out,
while the Frenchmen's spoons stood to attention in the thicker mess
they found in the bottom. This, with other things, contributed to make
bad blood between the two races. A great show was made of stirring up
the mess, but it was a pure farce.

[Illustration: RECIPES FROM CORPORAL EDWARD'S DIARY.]

Rice soup consisted of two hundred gallons of water, fifty pounds of
rice, twenty pounds of potatoes and one