e stables, but the surplus shared
tents near their British comrades.

Upon reaching the field the prisoners were paraded. Each man was
subjected to a searching cross-examination, and had to supply his name
and particulars of the regiment to which he belonged. All these details
were carefully recorded. In the preparation of this register the German
inquisitors betrayed extraordinary anxiety to ascertain the disposition
of the British troops and the regiments engaged in the battle-line.
Evidently they were in a state of complete ignorance upon this point.
Nearly every soldier was requested to give the name of the place where
he had been fighting, wounded, and captured. But the British soldiers
did not lose their presence of mind. They saw through the object of
these interrogations and their replies for the most part were extremely
unsatisfactory. The man either did not know, could not recall, or had
forgotten where he had been fighting, and was exceedingly hazy about
what regiments were forming the British army. In some instances,
however, the desired data was forthcoming from those who were most
severely wounded, the poor fellows in their misery failing to grasp the
real significance of the interpellations. It was easy to realise the
extreme value of the details which were given in this manner because
the Germans chuckled, chattered, and cackled like a flock of magpies.
As may be supposed, owing to the exacting nature of the search for
information, the registration of the prisoners occupied a considerable
time.

[*large gap]

Later, during the day of their arrival, we civilian prisoners had the
opportunity to fraternise with our fighting compatriots. Then we
ascertained that they had been wounded and captured during the retreat
from Mons. But they had been subjected to the most barbarous treatment
conceivable. They had received no skilled or any other attention upon
the battlefield. They had merely bound up one another's wounds as best
they could with materials which happened to be at hand, or had been
forced to allow the wounds to remain open and exposed to the air.
Bleeding and torn they had been bundled unceremoniously into a train,
herded like cattle, and had been four days and nights travelling from
the battlefield to Sennelager.

During these 96 hours they had tasted neither food nor water! The train
was absolutely deficient in any commissariat, and the soldiers had not
been permitted to satisfy their cravings