LIFE IN HANOVER HOSPITAL
HOSPITAL DIET. INTERVIEWED BY A GERMAN DOCTOR. DISCHARGED FROM
HOSPITAL
The diet in hospital can hardly be described as suitable for invalids.
At the same time it was substantial as compared with what is received
in prison camps. For breakfast we received coffee, with two very
small, crusty rolls, each about the size of a tangerine orange; each
roll cut in half, and a slight suspicion of jam placed between; for
dejeuner one cup of coffee, one roll, and some very strong cheese,
quite unfit to eat. The dinner was usually quite good, consisting of
soup, a little meat and vegetables, and stewed apples or gooseberries.
At 3 o'clock a cup of coffee and a small roll; at 6 o'clock supper,
consisting of tea without milk, strong cheese, or German sausage or
brawn, and a slice of bread.
For this diet we paid eighty marks per month.
An officer receives pay from the German Government on the following
scale: lieutenant, sixty marks per month; captain, one hundred marks
per month. The German Government recover the payments from the English
Government, and it is charged against the officers' pay in England.
No food is supplied free to officers either in hospital or camp; and
they cannot purchase anything beyond the regular issue.
With the exception of the dinner, I found the food of very little use
to me for the first week or two, as having lost the power in my jaw,
and being unable to open it more than half an inch, I couldn't tackle
the rolls, and what couldn't be eaten had to be left; there was no
substitute.
There was another diet, in which the coffee was replaced by hot milk,
which would have been very desirable, except that the dinner consisted
of some filthy substance, which was very unpalatable.
For the first week, therefore, I had practically only one meal a day,
the dinner; but afterwards, by dint of changing from one diet to
another I managed to get the dinner of No. 1 diet, and the milk of No.
2.
There was a canteen in the hospital where cigarettes, chocolates,
biscuits, and eggs were offered for sale.
The biscuits were never in stock; the chocolate, though high in price,
was so thin that there was nothing of it; and the cigarettes were
unsmokable.
It was a sorry day when we could get no more eggs. We used to depend
upon the eggs for supper; for the cheese was uneatable, the brawn
suspicious, and the sausage like boiled linoleum. German sausage at
the best of time is open to argument; but German sausage in a country
which has been blockaded for two and a half years is worthy of serious
thought.
The surgical attention was good, though the Russian prisoners who
assisted were apt to be rough; and as neither the German doctor nor
his Russian assistant could understand each other, and the wounded
could understand neither, nor be understood in turn, the situation was
sometimes difficult.
The doctor visited each bed at 8 A.M. every morning to inquire the
condition of the wounded; but whatever you had to say--which of course
he did not understand--the reply was always: "Goot, Goot."
On one occasion we saw flags flying over the city, and that evening
for supper we were given a hard-boiled egg. We were told it was the
Empress's birthday. We made anxious inquiries as to when the Kaiser
and the Crown Prince would have a birthday.
A few days after I arrived at Hanover, my right eye was removed, and
the following day the doctor told me, through an interpreter, that I
should be sent back to England. I asked when I should be sent, and was
told in three or four weeks.
It was about this time that I began to develop an unsatiable appetite
for sweet things. I have found that many have had the same experience,
after a period of privation following upon their wounds. I would buy
up all the jam, chocolate, and toffy I could lay my hands on, which
came in parcels to other prisoners. When I wrote home for parcels to
be sent to me, I hardly mentioned food, which afterwards became so
necessary, but asked for sweet stuff.
But what I needed more urgently than anything else was money. When I
was picked up the only cash I had on me was two francs, and this I
exchanged for a mark and sixty pfennigs, which, with five marks I was
able to borrow, kept me going for a while. But it was soon gone, and I
found myself without a sou, and no pay due for six weeks.
About ten days after I arrived at Hanover I was able to sit out in the
garden, and from then on I began to mend.
Saniez used to dress me, and his watchful eye was upon me wherever I
went.
Sometimes of an afternoon I used to sit by the fire. I used to like
sitting by the fire, because its warmth misled me into thinking I
could distinguish the light. If I happened to be rather quiet Saniez
would come to my side, and I would feel that he was watching me. Then
he would speak, and each would find some word to make the other
understand:
"Cigarette, Capitaine?"
"Oui, Saniez."
He would take one of his own cigarettes, put it in my mouth and light
it.
I could neither taste nor smell it; but it pleased Saniez, so I took
it.
"Tres bien, Capitaine, puff, puff!"
"Oui, Saniez, tres bien."
"Tres bien, good. Monsieur Parker says, 'Trays beens.' Joke, ah, good
joke!"
He would go away, but still watching me from a distance, would
presently come back again, and placing his large hand on my shoulder,
would say:
"Couche, Capitaine?" and leading me to my bed would lay me on it, and
carefully tuck me in for the night.
There was a German non-commissioned officer employed in the hospital
who was really a good sort. He could speak good English, having worked
in English hotels before the war.
He would sometimes sit by my bed for a chat:
"Where were you wounded, Captain?" he asked one day.
"Leuze Wood on the Somme," I replied.
"Somme dreadful place, dreadful war, Captain."
"Very!"
"It is not fighting now; it is murder, both sides murder--yah."
"Have you been to the front yet?"
"No; don't want to, either; don't like soldiering. German people sick
of war; but got to do what we are told. Captain, you and I could
settle it in five minutes."
"I'm not so sure; it's nearly settled me."
As the weeks passed by I began anxiously and earnestly to wait for
news of my exchange; but three weeks went, and the fourth and fifth
week passed, and still no news. About the seventh week Saniez burst
into the ward one morning and rushed up to my bed.
"Bon jour, Capitaine. Good, good! Office, quick," and he began
hurriedly dressing me.
I was to report to the office at once. I had been waiting for this,
and dreaming of this moment for weeks.
Saniez knew it too, and as I went through the door I heard him shout:
"Angleterre, Capitaine; tres bien!"
I waited outside the office for about half an hour. Wishart of the
Canadians was inside, and presently he came out to fetch me:
"They want to see you inside. Who do you think is in there?"
"I don't know--who?"
"Doctor Pohlmann. He supervises all the prison camps belonging to the
Tenth Army. We've got to go to a prisoners' camp."
My hopes were dashed to the ground.
Ho led me in, and I sat down before Doctor Pohlmann, who spoke
excellent English, and explained that he was a doctor of languages.
He filled up a form, taking from me particulars of my name, regiment,
and the usual details; and then, turning to Wishart, told him to go.
I began to feel that I was in for a rough time. Why did Doctor
Pohlmann wish to speak to me alone.
I sat before him in silence, too disappointed at the turn events had
taken to care what happened. But as soon as the door had closed he
turned towards me, and his remarks surprised me beyond measure. Not a
single question did he put to me to elicit information.
"Captain, you are quite blind?"
"Yes, quite."
"I am sorry; I did not know you were blind."
He seemed quite sympathetic. Not that I wanted it from him, yet so
relieved was I to escape cross-examination that I felt quite bucked.
He continued: "The hospital people say you are ready to be sent away.
When you leave here you come under my charge. They did not tell me you
were blind. I have no proper place to put you; I do not know where to
send you."
"If you will allow me, I can suggest a place."
"Ah, yes, I know, England. Of course you will be sent there in time,
but in the meantime I must take charge of you. I will send you
wherever you like. You can choose your own camp. What camp would you
like to go to?"
"What camps have you got?"
"I have Gottisleau, Osnabruck, Blenhorst."
"Well, it's very good of you to give me the choice; but they all sound
alike to me. How can I choose?"
"Have you any friends in either of them?"
"Well, really the names are unintelligible; I couldn't even repeat
them. Lieutenant Rogan was sent away last week. Where did he go?"
"Ah, he went to Osnabruck. Good camp! Good commandant! I will send you
and Wishart there, and I will arrange to put you three in one room
together. If I can do anything for you at any time, let me know."
The interview was over. He was a plausible fellow, and he probably
knew his job.
When I was getting ready to leave the hospital Saniez insisted on
packing my clothes himself. I thought nothing about it at the time,
but when I unpacked my clothes in camp I found concealed inside a
small packet of sugar. Then I understood Saniez.
Wishart and I were told we could either walk to the station or pay for
the hire of a motor-car. We rode to the station, laughing and talking,
and smoking cigars which we obtained from the canteen.