September 12, 1918 
LAND '■&> WATER 
11 
The Prisoners: By Effendi 
JUST a year ago there was great joy in the hearts of the 
three civilian and three service prisoners still in the 
enemy's hands in the Mahenge district of German East 
Africa. The civilians had spent over three years each 
in durance vile (yes, very vile), and the others had had 
as long a time in Boche camps as they wanted. So their 
elation can be imagined on learning that they were to be sent 
over into the Belgian lines, on giving an undertaking not to 
disclose anything of militarj- importance seen or heard, and 
not to make use of their knowledge of the country. 
At this time the Mahenge command was vested in Haupt- 
mann Tafel, and his columns to the north, west, and south 
were being severely handled by Belgian and British forces, 
composed for the most part of native troops. Porters were 
getting scarce, and those that remained were little better 
than skin and bones. Consistent underfeeding and overwork 
had sapped their vitality to a great degree ; still, they were 
required to labour for their soulless taskmasters, who drove 
them around the country carrying loads until they literally 
dropped dead or dying on the side of the path. Even then 
pity was not wasted on them. They had ceased to be of 
material value to their lords, and were therefore left xm- 
heeded where they la\', discarded like cigarette ends. 
So sorely were carriers needed that Hauptmann Tafel had 
decided that he could on no account afford to take with him 
on his imminent retreat the British prisoners, several of 
whom were seriously ill and would have to be carried. In 
order to rid himself of them and the trouble of feeding them 
longer, he made up his mind to send them out of his lines. 
He knew that he could in any case not hold them for more 
than another few weeks, so his apparent generosity was 
actually of little value. 
On Safari 
At first he had demurred because he said that their envoys 
were being detained. 
" Oh, that does not matter," chorussed the prisoners ; 
"give us a safe conduct through your lines, and we will take 
our chance afterwards. We don't want a parlementaire." 
And so it was arranged. 
On the morning of August 25th the party left the boma at 
Mahenge. Just that very day a new lie was in circulation, 
the Germans asserting that their wireless apparatus had 
tapped a message, sent by the advanced Belgian field wireless 
at Mikumi, reading: "Have taken seven German swine." 
This rumour was communicated to the writer by the Mahenge 
postmaster as a positive fact ; it proved, of course, to be a 
brazen falsehood. 
The descent from the Mahenge plateau to the plains is 
very steep. As one gets lower, golden-leaved bamboo groves 
cast a grateful shade, most acceptable to perspiring Europeans 
and natives alike. 
Six hours' steady marching brought the safari (caravan) 
to Kwa Fimbo, an importcUit supply depot, at dusk. The 
European in charge — known to his brethren as an " Etappen- 
schwein," i.e., Lines of Communication swine ! — had been 
ordered to prepare food, and he put on a very good meal of 
rice, foods, and fruit. He even gave the prisoners two eggs 
apiece for the morrow's breakfast ; and eggs were then 
much more of a luxury than matches are in England to-day. 
This same person had been in charge of that store some 
months before, when a party of British prisoners had been 
marched through. He had kept them waiting half the day 
for food, or even water. When he realised that his days 
were numbered, and that there was every probability of his 
being a prisoner within a couple of weeks — very, very few 
of the Huns allowed themselves to be killed, e.g., in two 
months' fighting in the autumn of 1917 we killed only 51 
Europeans, as against over 1,150 taken prisoners !■ — he acted 
according to the invariable rule of his breed, and pampered 
to the best of his ability the enemies he would cheerfully 
have spat upon a short time previously. 
The next da}* was to be almost a record march, so machilas 
— hammocks swung on poles — were provided for the prisoners. 
They could scarcely understand the German desire to get 
rid of them so quickly, but it coincided with their own wishes. 
The sooner they were safely out of the Hun lines, the better. 
With short halts in the forenoon and afternoon, the march 
was continued till about 9 p.m. Amongst the fugitives met 
en route was the Benedictine padre from the IfgJcara Mission, 
who said his fruit garden was at the disposal of the prisoners. 
Towards a o'clfjck a halt was called, and each of the p;irty 
was tightly blindfolded and carried in his machila. Slowl}' 
and carefully the little column moved. Here newly burnt 
^rass was to be smelt ; then the path had been cleared for a 
distance ; in a few minutes long, rank growth proclaimed 
itself by sweeping against the swaying canvas of the hammock. 
Soon the porters halted ; the prisoners heard muttered orders 
in Swahili and the faint buzz of German conversation. Slowly 
and carefully the procession proceeded along what might 
have been the top of a trench, before going down a short, 
■;teep slope to the river, atross which the party was ferried 
on a raft propelled by a wire rope. For another fifteen 
minutes the column moved on, and then the prisoners were 
permitted to remove their bandages. They had been blind- 
folded for three-quarters of an hour, which information per- 
mitted a fairly shrewd guess as to the depth of the enemy 
defences on either bank of the broad Kilombero. 
The unimaginative, hide-bound routine of the Germans is 
well examplified by their conduct on this occasion. The 
European prisoners, despite their oath of silence, were blind- 
folded, whereas the native porters were permitted to see all 
they could, doubtless under the entirely mistaken impression 
that they could convey little information of military value 
to the Belgians. As a matter of fact, one smart boy was 
able to describe in detail the enemy trenches, the number of 
maxims and small guns, and his knowledge of the companies 
holding them included even the names of most of the officers. 
This should be of interest to Commander Schoenfeld, who 
was responsible for the measures taken ! 
That night the party spent in the deserted mission house 
at Ifakara, accompanied by a' German who was to conduct 
them on the morrow as a parlementaire — or, in plain English, 
as a- spy. The determination to send him after Captain 
Tafel's remark showed quite plainly the reason. 
. On the morning of August 27th all was bustle. The 
Englishmen disposed of their remainhig shreds of clothing 
that could possibly be spared at extraordinary prices. An 
old thin blanket was eagerly bought at £5, while purchasers 
fought over a well-worn pair of khaki-drill trousers at ^4. 
At 9 a.m. the party moved off in close column under the 
white flag, having been told by a German officer to expect 
to meet the first Belgian patrols some three or four hours to 
the north. They had been going barely twenty minutes 
when they bumped into the first patrol, which appeared 
suddenly from nowhere. The ten askari of which it was 
composed acted very smartly. They ordered every one to 
lie down, and then collected the white men in a circle on the 
ground, their rifles, with fixed bayonets, being ready to 
punish any tricks. The sergeant would not credit that his 
prisoners were Englishmen, and was disinclined to listen to 
explanations. His aloofness was overcome by the sugges- 
tion of one of the Swahili-speaking Europeans that he had 
better send a couple of men ahead to see that the enemy 
was not following in their wake. The advice seemed good, 
and was acted on, and thenceforward the captors seemed 
to believe, but with reservations, the story of their prisoners. 
The German envoy and his three escorting askari were 
marched off ahead, to be followed in a more leisurely manner 
by the main body under three guards. The sergeant went 
on towards the river with three men. Within ten minutes 
they were firing ; within half an hour one was brought back 
wounded ; and that same afternoon the reinforcements that 
had arrived had driven the Germans from the north bank. 
The happy released Englishmen went on until they came 
to the camp of the ist Belgian Battalion. Here the major 
in command and his staff were very good. There were in 
the act of breakfasting, but insisted on rising and making 
their allies eat. And how good white bread and bully beef 
and jam tasted I 
The Bidamatari, as the Belgians are called by the natives, 
earned a debt of gratitude in thus freeing by their amazingly 
rapid advance a few unfortunates. The Congolese troops 
exulted at the prospect of battle, and gathered with curiosity 
to see the Waingereza who had come into their lines. They 
congratulated us and wished us well. They even told us to 
fight in the knowledge that if the white men in Europe were 
killed, there were in Africa nmnbers "as the grass" who 
wanted nothing better than to be shipped across the seas 
to try conclusions with the hated Huns. The number of 
these short, thick-set, sturdy, native warriors is legion, and 
better fighting material exists nowhere in the continent than 
in the Congo forests. The sons of cannibals, their instincts 
are appealed to by the risks of battle, and bloodshed is a 
joy to their hearts. Success to them! 
