Fit as Fiddles and as Hard as Nails

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the Uzebashi (Captain) a gentleman of obvious negroid extraction. Our guests got very friendly towards midnight as the wine flowed faster and faster,* and we hoped that their “friendship” would continue after they had recovered from their “heads” in the morning. The “Nigger” by way of showing his appreciation, sang a love song or some barbaric ditty to the assembled community before departing.

Moyes and Hussan enjoyed dinner immensly, especially the turkey which was well stuffed with good old English pork <sausages> ! -“Oh Jew what hast thou eaten”!! I hoped, however, that those <sausages> would eventually be the means of bringing about, as I had so often wished, their commitment to eternal damnation. Dec 29th saw the first fall of snow, and we had on an average 5 inches of snow for three months. We made a toboggan slide down the steep incline of the garden path, and had also some pleasant afternoons on the slopes of the adjoining hills outside the Town. Lieut Spink made some skis and was consequently the admiration of the Turkish population who no doubt wondered what those mad English would do next.

*Unlike his co-religionist in India, and against the laws of his faith, the Turk eats pork, sausages, and drinks wine.

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Germans there had objected to the familiar way the Turkish Comdt treated them and entertained them to dinner. Our treatment soon lapsed back to old ways, except that we did get more walks and Col Chitty had access to the Comdt which he never had before. To be a prisoner without books is beyond description – our books many of which were educational were on arrival promptly seized on the plea that they had to be sent to Constantinople to be censored. One batch of 30 did however come back in 3 weeks, but the remainder never were seen

After 5 months, having been completely cut off from the outer world, save for our letters, we were allowed to subscribe to some newspapers and the local war telegram, the former we ordered and paid for on Nov 1st 1916 and did not receive them till Feb 15th 1917, the latter we seldom got, for it was too much trouble for the Turks to even give us this small pleasure by remembering to get them from the telegraph office. Time passed and Xmas was at hand. Peace and Goodwill towards men was uppermost in everyones mind – we asked Hussan Effendi De Mulazim and Moyes the interpreter to dinner and to our concert afterwards, to which came also

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[December 1916]

All our complaints were lisened to and written down, but M. Fischer said in jest “It is your business as prisoners to complain” but there was little doubt, I think, that these gentlemen saw that our complaints were made not wholly without cause. Many promises were made by the Turkish officer who accompanied the party as to the quick delivery of parcels – but whoever reads this diary will by now have ascertained what hope we placed in these “Turkish promises”. So the delegates departed, having taken a few snapshots including a group of our Senior Officers, in the midst of whom figured that, unspeakable, sallow faced Mohammedan, that typical child of Turkey – Kaizim Bey.

A few days after their departure I received a letter from home acknowleding certain letters regarding our treatment and stating the fact that two delegates from Geneva had already started and were on their way to Yozgad; I felt certain that they must have had intimation that affaires at Yozgad were not satisfactory for they came direct from Constantinople to visit us before going on to other camps. They stated that they were not visiting Kashamounie as the officers there were happy & contented, and that the

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[December 1916]

[in]formed me that there was a man, obviously a European gentleman, in the lane; I ran down to find the same was Mr Brossier, who together with M. Fischer were making a tour of inspection round the prisoners camps on behalf of the International Society of Geneva: we were all delighted to see them, and we hastened to collect our innumerable complaints which we had already written out on paper. Col Chitty and Major Baines had compiled very accurate accounts of our treatment from the general & Medical points of view, they had also a true account of the treatment which we had received at the hands of the Comdt of Angora when we passed through that town on our way to Yozgad. M. Fischer interviewed Col Chitty, who did not in any way mince matters, while M. Brossier came round our rooms.

I had the opportunity of having an undisturbed interview with him, and each of us in turn explained “That Kaizim Bey, our Comdt was openly inamicable, neglectful, & discourteous, & that if only he could be removed that there would be more chance of us becoming as contented as our fellow prisoners at Afion Kara Hissa and Kashamounie, and that there would be more likelihood of our leaving Turkey with more good will and less animosity against the Turk.”

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22nd with bundles of complaints and several messages from us to Enver Pascha, after what I know was to him an unpleasant visit, for he was made to look at matters from the European point of view, in he heard some very strong talk, for the first time probably, in his life. Throughout these interviews our Comdt was far from being composed, for we openly stated that he had grossly neglected us and our sick. It is really of little use complaining of one Turk to another for they are all hand in glove against the Christian in particular; I always smile when I look at a liara gold piece and see inbedded in the effagy of the Imperial Ottoman arms, the Scales of Justice. After Jeosif Bey left Yozgad we certainly went out for walks more regularly than formerly, but the improvements suggested by him were not carried out for some weeks.
Early in Dec 1916 there was again marked activity on the part of the Turks regarding sanitation – we were forbidden to keep poultry, leaves round the houses were swept up, and the lane cleaned; we therefore on previous experience, expected another visit, perhaps this time from the American Embassy. On Dec 11th I met a brother officer who inf

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[November 1916]

[win]dow you will not smell it”. The fact that he might cause the drain to be cleared out naturally never occurred to him. How could one cope with such people. The Sanitary Inspector to Government arrived, by name Jeosif Bey, he made an inspection of our houses, our Medical Officer poured forth a bevy of complaints. The Inspector, being with the Comdt pretended to know no French and everything therefore had to be translated into Turkish, which rather cramped our style, he however admitted that the houses were insanitary & asked us to make the best of it- “as we should not be here long” – a truly evasive answer typical to the Turk. A few days later, however, he was caught by himself by our Doctor who took him into our four houses and having pointed out the disgraceful sanitary arrangements and an officer who was washing outside at the water spout for want of no better place, said “Would you expect to find such arrangements made for you were you a prisoner of War in England” the Inspector was obliged to say “No.”

Colonel the Hon Coventry was at that time down with typhus fever, this fact & the fact that we were so overcrowded was brought home to him. That Sanitary Inspector left Yozgad about Nov

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our houses. The Armenian family to whom our house belonged had been recently murdered by the Turks on the hills surrounding Yozgad. One morning, about 16th of Nov. the Turks were very active in sweeping up the grounds, our Mulazim came round the houses, poking his nose into every corner & passed remarks on sundry cobwebs & leaves that were lying about. The Turk does not know the difference between sanitation & what we in the Army call “eye wash”. The Mulazim would point out with much gusto a few leaves which the law of nature had demanded should fall from the trees in autumn, while he would totally ignore the fact that a cesspool was leaking through the wall into the kitchen. The following little story I always think is typical of the Turk – In the back yard outside our bedroom window there was an open drain on account of which in spite of the summer heat, we were obliged to keep our windows shut; when the Interpreter came round we complained and taking him to the window hoped to convince him that the odour from the drain was most unpleasant. He exclaimed – Yes the smell is bad, but if you close the win[dow]

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official visit to each of our houses. He spoke very kindly to our Medical Officer & our Colonel, nothing seemed too much trouble windows were at once put in to the empty saches, & he seemed to to take a great interest in anything approaching uncleaniness. Our suspicions were aroused & we began to smell a rat for I had just heard that an “Inspector” was expected to arrive from Constantinople. Such a man is the Turk, a lazy scheeming brute who will only make an effort when he scents the ropes end. Time after time we pointed out the insanitary conditions under which we were living, and that our chances under such conditions of preventing an outbreak of disease would be very difficult. We had walks and football fairly regularly about that date – but no sooner had I written home to say that there was a slight improvement in the amount of exercise we were receiving, than our walks decreased & football ceased. [ ] On Nov 15th we were at last paid up 3 months pay, this left us still one month in arrears, however, we were very glad to receive this, but we were not pleased to find that we were obliged to pay rent for

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of passing away the time of our confinement; in the evenings we sometimes played “Roulette” on a board which one of our number made, we could not employ the use of a marble since we had not the means of making the board correctly, so we contended ourselves by using a needle to indicate the winning number when the wheel ceased to spin. Some played poker, others bridge. Once a week we used to have a lecture; we were a mixed crowd, there being amongst our number, cowpunchers, engineers, tea planters and lawyers, in fact representatives of almost every vocation who had joined the Army “for the duration of the War”. We were therefore able to find some most accomplished lecturers who discoursed on many interesting subjects. In October we started a House Debating Society, we derived from our debates, which were never very serious, a fair amount of amusement; these cheerful evenings helped us, just for the moment to forget our dreary lives, and the Unspeakable Nation who were apparently doing their best to make life in general as irksome as possible for us. On Nov 4th Kaizim Bey, to our great surprise, paid his first proper

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were moved into a large house in the lane, which had recently been a Turkish Hospital, this move greatly relieved the conjestion in my house; they had there a garden in which they could stroll at odd times during the day. Time without number our Senior Medical Officer, Major Baines J.M.S. requested the Comdt to provide clothing & bedding for our orderlies, but nothing was done in the matter until Nov 1st (6 months after capture) when, however, clothes arrived: the mattresses provided were disgustingly dirty & of no use consequently. We were so disgusted at the abominable treatment we were receiving from the Turks, that we decided to report the whole affair to our Government which we did very successfully on the hope that our lot might be bettered. How this news was transmitted home, I will, for certain reasons, explain towards the end of my story which I hope to be writing on a British ship bound for England. We were very concerned about the filthy sanitary arrangements which consisted of open cesspits actually inside the houses, and being so overcrowded we greatly feared the advent of serious disease. We had but very few books and a few packs of cards so we had very few means