"Then we were put in cattle trucks and sent into Germany, and for the first two days they did not give us any food or water.
"On the second day we stopped at a station and a woman came towards us with a large can of soup, and we thought we were going to be fed; but she brought it right up to us, and said: 'Ugh, dirty Englanders,' and poured it on to the line.
"I was taken to Soltau Lager; and the food they gave us consisted of a cup of acorn coffee in the morning and a small piece of black bread, which had to last all day, and wouldn't make more than two good slices.
"For dinner we got a basin of very thin potato soup; sometimes we got a potato in it, and sometimes we didn't. For supper we got a cup of coffee, and we were supposed to make the bread do for both breakfast and supper.
"The prisoners were sent out from Soltau in working parties to farmers, factories, and coal mines and salt mines. The salt mines were dreaded most, and fellows who had been working there for two or three months looked dreadful. In fact, they could not keep up there longer than that; they got too ill.
"I was sent into a salt mine myself. The hours are not long, because it is impossible to stay down many hours at a time, and we were generally brought up about one o'clock. They did not keep me in the mine long, because they found I was of no use for the work.
"It's not so bad on the farms, although you have to work from about 4 o'clock till 8 or 9 at night. But the food is better, as you generally live at the farmer's table, and have the same as he does.
"When prisoners are sent in working parties, the employers have to pay the German Government the same wages he usually pays a man, and the prisoners receive from the German Government 30 pfennings (about 3d.) per day."
"Did the American Consul ever visit the lager?" I asked.
"Yes, but only once when I was there."