\ SKIPPER'S TALE 



Belgian, and French prisoners, all civilians, some 

 of them burgomasters and so on. And they were 

 rough uns, too, some of them ; but that was no 

 excuse for the terrible punishments which the Ger- 

 mans carried out. 



" All the time we were in the camps we were 

 never allowed any information or newspapers, except 

 about .German victories. They had a pole, and 

 when they had a bit of a victory they flew all the 

 flags they could put on it — and they put a birch- 

 broom on the top of the pole, after the style of Old 

 Tromp when he boasted that he had swept the 

 English from the seas. The Germans hadn't done 

 that, but they used to make a rare to do if they got 

 a little advantage at all. 



" For twelve months out of the sixteen during 

 which I was a prisoner we never saw a knife, fork, 

 or spoon. We had to walk about half a mile for our 

 dinner, such as it was, and stand in a crowd, like a 

 mob, to get it. When we had had the stuff served 

 out we used to scoop it up the best way we could, 

 with an oyster shell or a bit of tin, or anything else 

 that we were lucky enough to pick up from the 

 ground. 



" I got back to my home on Christmas Day, after 

 an absence of more than two years. Had I had 

 enough of it? Yes, so far as imprisonment goes; 

 but if I had not been too old I should have done as a 

 lot of my old friends have done — gone mine-sweep- 

 ing. Instead of being able to do that I had to take 

 a shore job inland, so I am still away from my 



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