till the end of 1917. "I refuse to give way to depression,"
he wrote. But in 1918 the strain of useless monotony had become too
great, he became physically ill, and how low hope had fallen the letter
itself shows: "You can't think how good it is to hear you speak with so
much sympathy. I feel sure you understand the dreariness of this life,
the long and fruitless waiting, the nights of anguish--and all the
misery of it, the terrible discontent and the passionate heart
longings.... You don't know how sore it is sometimes about my heart...."

Methods that seem to many of us avoidable contribute also to increase
ill-feeling. I take the following from the _Daily News_ of September,
27, 1918:

Among others, I had my Christmas dinner last year with a German.
At least, his name is German and he was born in Germany. He is
less interested, personally, in those facts than in these, viz.,
that he is an international Socialist and a first class
electrical engineer. For four years he has done extremely
responsible work for a large engineering firm with important
contracts from the M. of M. For four years he has had his
liberty within the usual five-mile radius; for four years the
local police have not found the least fault with him.

Now, thanks to the Northcliffe Intern-them-all-Stunt, he is shut
up in the Isle of Man, and the country has lost the services of
a man who was worth more to us than many Northcliffes.

From a letter which he wrote recently to an English friend I
have copied the following:

As a result of the fact that no German paper is permitted
here in the camp, not even those advocating understanding
nor those critical of the German Government, and practically
no English paper hitherto except those abounding in
Hun-talk, there is still a general feeling here towards
"England" exactly the opposite of what these restrictions
are intended to create--a bitterness and a contempt which
exist side by side with the most violent criticism of the
governing clique of Germany, and with anti-capitalistic,
revolutionary sentiment! So I am exerting myself to make
people realise that, however influential, the Northcliffe
and Allied Press is not "England," and that the best German
papers constantly work for the abatement of hatred and for
genuine reconciliation