Germans. Many men told of German officers and soldiers 

 who intervened to save them from Turkish brutality, and 

 even found them clothing and food. In the worst Turkish 

 camps British prisoners were bastinadoed on their bare 

 soles, and the only limit set to their slave-master's brutality 

 was that he got profit from hiring them out as labourers. 



The men are now dressed in civilian clothes provided 

 by the British Government through the Dutch Legation, 

 and lately have been receiving 10 a. month each to eke 

 out their rations a sum none too large, seeing that a loaf 

 of bread lately cost eight shillings and still costs four. 



We English have been inclined to consider the 

 Turk as a clean fighter and not a bad fellow at 

 heart. It is an opinion that must be altered. 



Give a Turk the least authority (said a major captured 

 at Kut) and he uses it like a brute. The Turkish officers, 

 who are so polite and charming now, bullied and ill-treated 

 the British prisoners abominably. I bear no grudge for 

 the blows with riflebutts I received. I am ready to for- 

 get incidents such as when a party of British officers I 

 was with was driven into sheep pens, the floor of which 

 was 6 in. deep in dung and the sheep, just taken out, had 

 been suffering from foot-and-mouth disease. But I can 

 never forget, or forgive, the ghastly w r ay our men were 

 herded, worked, and brutalised all these years. 



60 



