ll arrange to put you three in one room
together. If I can do anything for you at any time, let me know."

The interview was over. He was a plausible fellow, and he probably
knew his job.

When I was getting ready to leave the hospital Saniez insisted on
packing my clothes himself. I thought nothing about it at the time,
but when I unpacked my clothes in camp I found concealed inside a
small packet of sugar. Then I understood Saniez.

Wishart and I were told we could either walk to the station or pay for
the hire of a motor-car. We rode to the station, laughing and talking,
and smoking cigars which we obtained from the canteen.

CHAPTER XXVII

OBSERVATIONS AND IMPRESSIONS

EMPLOYMENT OF PRISONERS. PARCELS. MEN OF MONS

When I first became aware that there was a probability of my being
exchanged I set to work to gather what information I could.

I came into contact with a good many private soldiers, and in
conversation with them I became deeply interested in the commercial
value of prisoners of war; for it appeared to me clearly evident that
in a country where there were over a million prisoners, possibilities
were unlimited; and the German authorities appeared, with businesslike
organisation, to be taking the fullest advantage of their
opportunities.

The unprecedented scale upon which prisoners have been made during the
present war has opened up a problem unique in the annals of history.
The more prisoners you take the more mouths you have to feed; and the
greater becomes the man power necessary for their supervision.

With the ever-increasing number of prisoners the problem grows in
enormity, and can either develop into embarrassing proportions, or by
scientific handling can be turned to advantage.

In England for over two years we have herded our prisoners behind
bayonets and barbed wire. The financial resources of the country have
been poured out to feed idle hands, supplying food without repayment,
at a time when the food and labour problems of the nation are becoming
its most serious problems.

For over two years we have allowed the question to slide into
obscurity, until to-day in our own country the only part of the
community which has no anxiety or participation in the problem of
living and daily sustenance is the German prisoner in our midst; and
yet to-day a large part of what should be our fighting power is kept
from the firing-line to supply the needs of the nation and feed the
mouth