The quality of the food is rapidly deteriorating. The bread is black, sour, and hard, with a large proportion of potato flour in it. The meat is generally uneatable. Fortunately supplies are coming fairly regularly from home and we subsist almost entirely on potted meats, tongues, etc.
January 14.—The Russian New Year's Day. Went to their Church service and was greatly impressed by the solemnity of it; also by their beautiful singing. Toasted the Russian army at lunch; much bowing and scraping and a great interchange of compliments.
January 25.—Heard to-day of the second battle of Heligoland and of the sinking of the Blücher—Good. Amused to notice that the German papers claim this fight as a great victory—a Trafalgar, they called it. Prefer to believe the statement of our Admiralty—quoted by the Crefeld paper with many sneering comments and notes of exclamation interspersed.
There is, I think, no doubt that Germany has begun to feel the pinch. The altered manner of our "kindly captors" towards us is remarkable. There is a good deal less of the haughty conqueror about them.
The authorities here are compiling a list of those prisoners who are wounded and unfit for further service. An astonishing number of officers were brought forward by the doctors of each nationality for examination by the German medico! Particulars of our cases were taken down, to be forwarded to Berlin. I fear that, as far as I am concerned, there is not much chance of getting sent home.
February 3.—Permission granted to us to write eight letters a month instead of two. Perhaps this is due to pressure brought to bear since the arrival home of V——. We knew he'd reached England safely some time ago, but have heard no details as to how he did it. Women conductors on the trams in Crefeld now; and Carl, a German waiter, late of the Grosvenor Hotel and at present underling here to the canteen manager, is under orders for the front. Both facts are significant, especially the latter, seeing that the aforesaid Carl is as good a specimen of the physically unfit as one could wish to see.
February 7.—Marked improvement of German manners continues unabated. Carl still here. The civilian who heats the furnace for the bathroom (doubtless an authority!) confesses quite openly that Germany is beaten, that he has been convinced of it for months and believes nothing he sees in the papers.
Our hosts having now condescended to allow us to hire musical instruments, and having even granted us a garret to play them in, we enjoyed quite a pleasant concert this evening. But the crowd and the atmosphere were awful. The orchestra surprisingly good, considering its haphazard formation: and a Russian peasant chorus beautifully rendered.
February 8.—Fine day with a grand feeling of spring in the air. Heading in a German paper: "The enemy takes one of our trenches near La Bassée." But what an admission! Am convinced that at last the German people are beginning to realise what their Government must have known from the time when the first great rush on Paris failed—namely, that there can only be one end to this war for them—defeat.
February 10.—Received a second £5 from Cox within three weeks. He must have lost his head on finding me with a balance credit for about the first time in my career.