must be carried out by all concerned, and at the same
time.)
{d) Wider Education (which shall not count as
unimportant the teaching of sound patriotism and
the just rights of nationality.)
{e) A readiness to unite in Federation with other
nations closely allied in ideal, and so take the first
step towards a world-agreement and peace.
(/) Fair and free discussion of the (perfectly
possible) aim of all such measures — i.e.. International
Arbitration.
# # « #
The meeting will not have been in vain if every
one of the above suggested points is discredited.
My aim, and I believe the aim of all subsequent
readers in this course, is to promote interest in a
problem rather than to give you any cut-and-dried
scheme.
From any honest thought and sincere desire to
abolish evil, good will result, and its particular
form is immaterial.
CHAPTER XXIII
A TRAGEDY, AND BAD TIMES AT BAD-COLBERG
It was the escaping which showed up Beetz and
Kroner in their true characters; the one as an un-
scrupulous bloody-minded Hun, the other as a weak
fool.
The trouble started when it was discovered that
somebody out of our building had been attempting
to cut the wire. A search resulted in the discovery
of several escape kits, owned apparently by no one
(for naturally they remained unclaimed when the
Germans found them).
The Commandant was furious, and ordered all
the officers in the three suspected rooms to report
themselves at the interpreter's office every hour of
the day until further notice. This was clearly a
flagrant case of collective punishment which the
German and British Governments had agreed should
not be inflicted. The result of it would be that the
officers who had to report themselves would thereby
be deprived of walks; not to mention the obvious
disadvantage of having to stop doing whatever they
might be doing, and run off to the interpreter's
zS3
2^4 COMRADES IN CAPTIVITY
office every hour of the day. We therefore decided
that we would not go.
Finding his order had been ignored, the Comman-
dant sent for us the following day, and we lined up
against the wall in his office.
" Why have you refused to report ?" was the
question he asked each one, passing down the line ;
and the answer was taken down in writing. Some
said one thing and some said another, defending
their refusal to obey; but I was at the end of the line
and had had time to think things out a bit. It was
clear to me that his object (which was, no doubt,
suggested to him by Beetz) was now to obtain from
each officer a signed admission of disobedience,
which was the unforgivable sin in Germany. How-
ever good one's case might be, that case would avail
nothing at court-martial in the face of such an
admission. I therefore made up my mind that he
should certainly not have one from me, and our
conversation was as follows :
Kroner. " And you, why have you refused to
report ?'*
Self. " I have not refused to report."
Kroner {surprised). " But you did not come !"
Self {sweetly). " No, I did not come."
Kroner {angrily). "Why did you not come?
Why did you not come ?"
Self. " Herr Commandant, I am a lawyer."
(Pause to let that sink in.) " I have read much law,
A TRAGEDY, AND BAD TIMES 285
but never yet have I discovered any civilized people
punishing prisoners without telling them what they
were being punished for. I have not been told."
Beetz. " He says that the Germans are not
civilized."
Kroner. " Do you say that the German nation
is not a civiHzed nation ?" (Writer prepares to put
down my answer — insult to the German nation
being about as damning as disobedience.)
Self. "But no, Herr Commandant, that is pre-
cisely what I do not say. It is just because I know
that your nation is so highly civilized that I could not
bring myself to report. ' There is some mistake,'
I said, ' so I will refrain out of respect to the German
nation.' "
Kroner. "But there is no mistake; it was my
order to you."
Self. " Herr Commandant, I am very sorry to
hear you say such a thing. I shall of course not
make myself guilty of disobedience. But since col-
lective punishment is forbidden, and since I am about
to be punished for no offence, I will request you
(as you know I have a right to do) to forward at
once my complaints to the Dutch Ambassador,
and to your own Kriegsministier. All these officers
are witness that I have made the request."
That was a nastv one for the old man: for not
only had he failed to get me to admit disobedience,
or even an intention to disobey, but he had to report
286 COMRADES IN CAPTIVITY
to his own Government and to the Dutch Ambassa-
dor that he was about to. punish me for no offence.
As an alternative he could ignore my request, which
had been witnessed by about twelve officers, and risk
getting himself into trouble later on. Apparently
he was not willing to do either of these things. He
climbed down.
" Mr. Harvey," he said, " has not refused to report
himself and so he need not report. I cancel in his
case the order. The rest of you shall report, and
shall also be tried by court-martial for disobedience."
(I knew it !) " If you do not come, soldiers shall
bring you. It is not a punishment, it is a camp pre-
caution, and I have a right to make the whole camp
report every hour of the day if I think fit." This
was quite true, but the point was that he had not
made the whole camp report, and therefore this
was not an Jppel but a strafe — an argument which
we put up at the court-martial, which I afterwards
attended as witness for the defence. But the
Germans did not require me to swear to my evidence
after I had given it, which is their way of saying that
they did not believe it. It was just as I had expected :
disobedience admitted, a defence was hardly lis-
tened to, and certainly not considered by the judges.
My friends, with the exception of M. and W. (who
got each ten months), were sentenced to six months'
imprisonment in a fortress.
But before they were taken away to do it, other
A TRAGEDY, AND BAD TIMES 287
things happened of much more tragic importance.
M. and W. made a daring escape and were " out "
for several days before recapture. One morning —
it was Whit-Sunday — we heard that a guard of eight
soldiers from the camp had been detailed by the
Adjutant to meet the two recaptured officers at a
railway station about eight miles away, and to bring
them back to the lager. About midday a queer
rumour began to spread about the place — coming,
it is said, from a sentry — that one of the officers had
been wounded. That they were both of them un-
wounded when recaptured and even so late as that
morning, was clear, since they were to be marched
eight miles.
At about three o'clock in the afternoon both
of them were brought into the prison on stretchers —
quite dead.
They had been shot in a wood at Heldburg, a
short distance from the station, at which they were
handed over to the carefully chosen soldiers oj Beetz,
to be brought back (?) to Bad-Colberg.
The story circulated by the German authorities
was that they had tried to escape; but the Colberg
officers said openly that they suspected that this
was not the case, and asked for permission to examine
the bodies. I myself (though holding no official
position amongst the British) drafted the letter
which went to the Commandant after the verbal
request of the S.B.O. had been refused, and I made
288 COMRADES IN CAPTIVITY
a special point of the fact that British officers, many
of whom were soon to be repatriated to Holland,
would depart with an impression, and express an
opinion, very prejudicial to Germany, and the
camp in general, if an examination of the bodies
was refused. But the Hun authorities again abso-
lutely refused. No doubt they had good reason,
for an examination would have definitely settled
such vitals questions as these :
(i) Whether they were shot from the back (as
they would be if running away) or from the front
(as they would be if lined up for execution).
(2) Whether they were wearing their packs (no
sane men who were three hundred kilometres from
the frontier would attempt to escape without them).
(3) Whether they were shot from a distance,
or whether the muzzles of the rifles had been placed
against them.
(4) Whether they showed signs of other ill-treat-
ment.
(5) The number of times they had been shot.
(6) Whether they had been bayoneted.
That the guards picked for duty by Beetz were
the most brutal and anti-English that could be
found in the camp we had heard from a sentry
that same morning. What their private instructions
had been we could not discover, but we knew :
(i) That Beetz hated M. and W., and that they
had not concealed their opinion of him.
A TRAGEDY, AND BAD TIMES 289
(2) That he had told them that they would never
escape again.
(3) That on an occasion when another officer
attempted to escape by walking out of the camp
while disguised in German uniform, Beetz was angry
with the sentry who stopped him because he had not
allowed him into the neutral-zone, from which he
could not escape, and shot him there,
(4) That friendly sentries, talking of M. and W.
and their many escapes, had said something which
became significant in the light of subsequent events :
*' Yes, they are two very brave men, but they will
be shot." We knew also that M. and W. had
agreed with one another before escaping that if
recaptured they would try no foolish stunts on the
way home.
Now at the time at which they were shot it was
broad daylight ; they were presumably without their
packs, unless purposely allowed to keep them as a
temptation to escape; they had four armed guards
each; they were seventy yards apart, so that there
could have been no collaboration; it was a lonely
spot; they were both shot dead, and neither merely
wounded ; Beetz was responsible for picking the party
to fetch them.
These facts, each slight enough in itself, were,
when massed together, of considerable significance,
and made us morally sure that there had been foul
play, but try as we would, we could get no farther
290 COMRADES IN CAPTIVITY
than that. We could get no inspection of the bodies^
and the rest of the evidence, though suspicious,
proved nothing, for the friendly sentries would not
give their names, nor put in v^riting nor repeat ver-
bally anything they had previously admitted.
These tvi^o brave and unfortunate officers were
men I knew very well, for one of them lived in the
same room and the other next door. Thev were
liked and admired by the whole camp, and their
friends may be sure that their fellow-officers did all
that was possible to clear up the mystery of their
deaths. That they could not do more was due to
deliberate obstruction by the German authorities,
for reasons which may be conjectured.
I have related this sinister and sombre occurrence
for two main reasons: (i) To pay tribute to the
bravery of two men who died in service for their
country as surely as if they had fallen on the battle-
fields of France; (2) to brand for so long as this
writing lives and as far as it penetrates through the
world the names of Kroner and Beetz.
CHAPTER XXIV
LAST DAYS AT BAD-COLBERG -
My last days at Colberg were occupied with various
interests, but chiefly with being (by virtue of past
legal training) " prisoner's friend " — an employ-
ment kept entirely unofhcial and secret, though the
Germans certainly had their suspicions of what I
was doing, as shown by a remark made at one of
the courts-martial when Beetz snarled suddenly,
" And these lies have been carefully made up for you
by Lt. Harvey, I suppose ?" — a suggestion which
was, of course, indignantly denied by the prisoner.
What, in fact, happened was this : the best line of
defence to whatever questions had to be answered
was thought out, written down, and learnt by heart.
It was then translated into German. At trial the
translated defence was handed to the judges. The
prisoner did not require a German counsel. He
had written out his defence. He had got it trans-
lated for the convenience of the court. He had no
more to say. The court was naturally pleased at
this saving of time, and to the chagrin of the
camp authorities showed its first appreciation of
such a frank and concise explanation by inflicting
291
292 COAIRADES IN CAPTIVITY
only three weeks' imprisonment upon an officer
whom Beetz and Kroner had accused of burglary,
being in possession of stolen goods, destruction of
German -property, and attempted escape.
The Germans asked some very curious questions
at their courts-martial, and solemnly took down some
very curious answers — e.g., " Where were you born ?''
Answer. " Dixie."
Q. " What was your mother's maiden name ?"
A. "Pinkum."
Q. " Christian name ?"
A. " Lydia."
Except in their often very unpleasant consequences
these German courts-martial of British officers were
a comic farce ; and as for justice !
I must not forget to mention another very plucky
escape from Colberg which occurred about this
time, and was in many ways amusing and spectacular.
One bright summer day people at upper windows
in the villa were amazed at the sight of two British
officers in full escape kit proceeding to cut the wire
almost under the nose of a sentry. As a matter of
fact, the sentry was interested in a game of tennis
and did not see them. They crawled out of the
camp and began running. Then they were seen.
One shot rang out, then several shots, but the officers
continued to run. There was a very curious and
unpleasant thrill in watching the German nearest
to us rest his rifle against a tree to get good support
LAST DAYS AT BAD-COLBERG 293
while he took aim and fired at our friends running
up the hillside. One wanted so much to push out
a magic invisible hand and jog his elbow. Finally
the officers were cut off and recaptured by camp
guards, and there was almost a riot when it was seen
that one of these was beating X. with the butt of his
rifle. The German orderly-room sergeant who had
run out to watch the chase was so frightened by the
attitude of officers round him that he drew his sword,
nearly cutting off his own head. (Orderly-room
clerks should not be allowed swords, it isn't safe for
them.) A roar of laughter greeted this piece of
frightf ulness ; the trembling man looked stupidly
at the naked sword in his hand, and returned it
with some difficulty to its scabbard. Another great
clap of laughter followed him as he hastily returned
to the shelter of his office. He had saved the
situation.
A thing which particularly puzzled the German
sentries at Bad-Colberg was that every evening the
English officers (some of them quite senior) would
play a game of rounders with the English orderlies —
common soldiers ! And when a General, who had
recently been brought into the camp, joined in, and
went walking about with bare legs, they gave it up
altogether. General D. was a great asset to the
camp, and his tact and firmness in dealing with the
Huns, who were always impressed by military rank,
caused an improvement in their behaviour towards
20
294 COMRADES IN CAPTIVITY
us. Our grievances, including, of course, the shoot-
ing affair, were put into his hands to be dealt with
in the best way possible. Details of all bad cases
of injustice or ill-treatment were memorized by
officers being sent to Holland on repatriation, and
so taken through one by one to the British authorities^
causing dignified protest on one side and insolent
denial on the other. Theoretically I am against
reprisals, but undoubtedly experience is in favour
of them as the only protest which appeals to the
German mind and obtains prompt remedy of
abuses.
One might as well argue fair play with a tiger?
or chivalry with a pig, as either with a Hun.
There are exceptions, but I am speaking generally
and of a policy rather than a people. This
opinion is shared by all prisoners of war who have
had anything more than a short and superficial
experience of captivity. Pacifists may, if they are
foolish enough, accuse me of nourishing hatred, but
as a matter of fact I do not know what it is. Quite
without malice but with all my strength I hit a
nasty thing w^hen I see it. To like nice things and
nasty things at the same time is dishonest, and shows
that you do not care a damn for either.
At last (it was somewhere about June 20), after
I had done nearly two years of captivity, my name
appeared on a list of officers to go to Holland.
I was delighted, and so (I think) were some of the
LAST DAYS AT BAD-COLBERG 295
Germans. By this time I was heartily sick of them
and their country. To get out of it seemed too
good to be true. I felt that it was not to Holland
but to Heaven that we were going.
On the day of departure we were subjected to a
very rigorous personal search, and required to give
up all camp money in our possession whether notes
or otherwise; the reason for this being a trick played
on Germany by repatriated Frenchmen in another
camp. Our Allies, having taken away with them
some of the paper which passed for money in that
camp, proceeded to forge thousands of notes, which
they sent concealed in parcels of food to their
friends who remained in the camp they had left,
where such paper had, of course, the purchasing
value of money. There resulted an unheard-of
boom in the canteen (money is no object when one
has only to go up to a friend and say, " Give me a
thousand marks "), and the Germans, who made a
profit on everything sold, must have thought that
they were making a fine fortune, till they discovered
at the end of several months that more money
had been spent than was ever issued, and that a vast
percentage of notes for which value had been given
was absolutely worthless. Our search over, and
nothing of importance found, we drove light-
heartedly away to the station in a rickety one-horse
char-a-banc. The guards who accompanied us
were stolid, amiable men, and the driver a village
296 COMRADES IN CAPTIVITY
" character." On our way to the station we passed
through Parson's Wood (Pfaffenholtz), near Held-
burg, and had pointed out to us by the driver the
exact places where poor M. and W. had been shot.
The two spots pointed out were certainly seventy
yards apart.
Saddened with the memory of that tragedy, and
gladdened at the thought of quitting the place of
it for ever, we boarded the train and were soon being
carried swiftly away on our road to freedom.
CHAPTER XXV
AACHEN
Now comes what was in many ways the greatest
disappointment that befell us in captivity. We
arrived at Aachen (Aix la Chapelle) about June 24,
and expected to go over any time within a week.
Officers continued to come in from various other
prison camps for a few days, and we were pleased to
meet quite a number of old friends and to rejoice
with them that we met in such happy circumstances.
When we asked the Germans the date of our
departure, they replied with the motto of every
German canteen, " Morgen fruh " (to-morrow
morning), and for several days we believed them —
but we did not go. The stock of British food we
had brought with us decreased and finally ceased —
still we did not go. German rations were enough
to keep us alive, but always hungry; it was simply
refined torture. Always when we inquired, it was
the same tale: " To-morrow morning "; and so it
continued until " Morgen frUh " became synony-
mous with " never," and both heart and body grew
sick with hope and food deferred.
On the walks which we were allowed to take on
297
298 COMRADES IN CAPTIVITY
parole we frequently saw woods and steeples which
lay in Holland, and on one occasion, when our guard
lost his way, suddenly found ourselves within twenty
yards of the frontier. And still we did not cross.
The reason for delay was, it is conjectured, trouble
between the English and German Governments over
the sinking of the Konigen Regentes, which took place
about that time — but. possibly there were other
reasons.
Whether we were permitted by honour to escape
in such circumstances was a question debated fre-
quently, and with some heat ; but since we were still
guarded with wire and sentries I fail to see that there
could have been any doubt in the matter, which
was the more clear since a special parole was exacted
for walking out.
I therefore began preparations, by acquiring a
civilian suit from a friendly naval officer. How he
had got it through I don't know, but there it was,
and he was kind enough to part with it. There was
neither opportunity nor necessity to save food, since
in one night one would certainly be caught or over ;
nor were maps and compasses a necessity, though
desirable. The only problem was to get unseen out
of the large building (a technical school) in which we
had now been shut up for a month. Its front was
guarded by sentries, and the courtyard at the back
patrolled by guards at night and whenever we were
allowed there in the daytime. With a German
AACHEN 299
uniform I believe it would have been easy to walk
out, but it was not possible to obtain one.
When I arrived at Aachen I had two leaky worn
pairs of boots, and after a week or two I sent the
better pair into town to be mended, and never saw
them again. Still, I thought that the old pair I
had would carry me through a night's marching,
and at the worst I could go barefoot; the main point
was to find some way out. E. was going with me,
and at length we discovered through the kindness
of an Australian sergeant a chance of escape which
we thought worth trying. There was a room up-
stairs at the side of the house, which was filled with
wounded soldiers waiting, like ourselves, to be re-
patriated. Below the window outside was a clump
of bushes. Sentries passed them periodically patrol-
ling the courtyard at night, but often stood chatting
round the corner of the building. This the Austra-
lian sergeant told us, and gave as an opinion (which
afterwards proved perfectly correct) that a man
might descend undiscovered in the darkness from
the window to the bushes, by means of sheets tied
together, or a rope. Once in the bushes, it only
remained to wait till the sentrv's back was turned,
and then to climb an eight-foot wall into the poorly
lighted road which ran past the building, and was
not much used after 1 1 p.m.
We managed to get hold of a suitable length of
thick wire cable, and were only waiting while E.
300 COMRADES IN CAPTIVITY
negotiated for a navy blue suit in the possession of
another officer, when there suddenly arrived from
a fortress, where he had been put for safety after
many determined escapes, a Captain taken in the first
few weeks of the war, who had hitherto refused
repatriation because he hoped to escape. He had
now told the Germans that he wished to exercise
his right, and since his time was long overdue, was
being taken straight over, only waiting a couple
of nights at Aachen while necessary arrangements
were made for his passing into Holland. Now it
turned out that this officer had told the Germans
that he was willing to be repatriated merely because
he found escape impossible where he was, and hoped
to get a good chance from a place so near the border
as Aachen. Thus after four years of captivity he
had come simply to escape, and he had two clear
nights in which to manage it.
We had already had a month, and it looked as if
we might well have another month. Therefore
E., the new officer, and I talked the matter over,
and decided that under the circumstances it was
only right and fair that he should have the first and
immediate chance of putting our scheme — or rather,
the Australian sergeant's — to the test.
I am very glad to say that the following night he
got out safely, and reaped a well-earned reward by
" getting over."
But it was very unfortunate for us that under his
AACHEN 301
weight the wire cable cut a deep groove in the
window-sill, which, though immediately filled in
with soap, dust-sprinkled, was discovered by the
Germans. So our scheme went West.
Before we could discover another way of escape
at all feasible, orders came that we were to be shifted
to another camp. On the morning of departure
E. and I endeavoured to creep out by way of the
fowl-house, and thence over the wall; but the
German Feldwebel discovered us downstairs, and
we only escaped punishment by lying dexterously,
and anointing him with " palm oil." This was,
I believe, on August 16, and about an hour later,
wearing still civilian clothes under our Burberrys,