ar of the tonneau, "We want bread!" while other
notices were chalked up in commanding positions, so as to arrest instant
attention, "For God's sake, give us bread!"

When the German guards spotted the flaming appeal upon the rear of the
car they fussed up in indignant rage. One advanced to obliterate the
damning words, but the chauffeur whipped round the car. He caught sight
of the mute request, and intercepting the officious sentry remarked:--

"You mustn't touch this car! It's the property of the United States
Government!"

The guard pulled himself up sharply, glaring fiercely and evidently
contemplating defiance of the warning. The chauffeur was a white man. He
eyed us quizzically for a moment or two. Realising from our faces that
we were not playing a joke, but ventilating a serious grievance, he
stood between the officious sentry and the vehicle until the
representative returned. The Embassy car drove out of the camp with the
letters still staring out in a gaunt appeal from the thick dust.
Evidently the chauffeur drew the representative's attention to our cry,
while it is only reasonable to suppose that the emissary from the
Embassy discovered the letter which we had secreted beneath his seat,
because an improvement in the allowance of bread immediately ensued.

And so it went on. No trick was too knavish or too despicable to prevent
our guardian learning the truth concerning our plight. He very rarely
walked about unaccompanied. Tongue in cheek, the Germans, who always
were cognisant of the object of his visit, and who had always taken
temporary measures to prove the grievance to be ill-founded, strode
hither and thither with him, throwing knowing glances and winks among
themselves behind the representative's back. Doubtless it was the
successful prosecution of these tactics which persuaded the Embassy to
believe that the majority of our complaints were imaginary and arose
from the circumstance that the inhabitants of Ruhleben would persist in
ignoring the fact that they were the victims of war and not pampered
pets.

One of the most glaring instances of the effective manner in which the
Germans sought to disarm and to outwit an official visitor was narrated
to me by a fellow-prisoner who had been transferred from Sennelager to
Ruhleben. I conclude that the incident must have happened, during the
interregnum when I was "free on Pass" in Cologne. I cannot vouch for the
accuracy of the statement, but I do not t