A Prisoner In Turkey - free ebook by John Still

A PRISONER IN TURKEY

THE KARA HISSAR The Armenian Church appears just to the right of the large white building in the centre of the picture, at the foot of the crag...

11 minute read

Read Chapter

FOREWORD

This book, like most books, consists both of facts and opinions. In order to fortify the facts, and so that it may be clearly seen that the opinions are justified, a number of extracts from the “Report on the Treatment of British Prisoners of War in Turkey,” which was presented to Parliament in November, 1918, are included here by the special permission of the Controller of His Majesty’s Stationery Office. So few people read Government publications that this course seems necessary. In this offic

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Extracts from a Report on the Treatment of British Prisoners of War in Turkey.

The history of the British prisoners of war in Turkey has faithfully reflected the peculiarities of the Turkish character. Some of these, at any rate to the distant spectator, are sufficiently picturesque; others are due to the mere dead-weight of Asiatic indifference and inertia; others again are actively and resolutely barbarous. It has thus happened that at the same moment there have been prisoners treated with almost theatrical politeness and consideration, prisoners left to starve and die t

11 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER I

At dawn on the 9th of August, 1915, the 6th Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment received an order to attack the great hill that towers above Anafarta. The order was late, hours too late, for the messenger had lost his way; so, although we did not know it at the time, we had already forfeited our chance, and were launched upon a forlorn endeavour. The rampart of hills to the east of us was black against the chill, pale sky as we moved out across the grey flats that led up to the foot of Teke

13 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER II

We were rather thankful to reach Constantinople. We crossed the Marmora by night in a rickety little torpedo-boat with something wrong with her screw, and we hoped to escape being sunk by one of our own submarines. The danger was a very real one, for it was only a few weeks after this that a Turkish transport with a number of British prisoners on board was sunk by one of our E-boats. But in that case they all escaped to barges alongside. We were sealed up like bully beef in a tin, and would have

15 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER III

After three days of Taxim we were told that it had been decided to send us to Angora, where we would enjoy perfect liberty. None of us had a very clear idea where Angora was, but we knew it must be a pleasant change from Taxim. There were not many preparations to make; no packing. My own luggage consisted, I remember, of a bit of soap, a tooth-brush, and a few other odds and ends, all contained in a paper bag tied up with a bootlace: the sort of bag you buy buns in. And I was one of the richest

14 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER IV

We had now a breathing space. We had reached the place where the Turks meant to keep us, and though we had yet to learn that Turks never continue to follow the same policy for very long, we now had time to settle in as comfortably as circumstances permitted. Our space was strictly circumscribed. There was the series of rooms already described as belonging to the officers, and there was the paved courtyard, perhaps thirty yards square. This was common to the officers and about 150 N.C.O.’s and me

18 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER V

The town of Angora is built round a hill. Originally there was a large castle on the top of the hill, with walls conforming to the rocky nature of the site, and outside the castle a walled town. The walls still remain, but the town has burst its bonds and overflowed down the slopes and out on to the plain below. At many points among the rocks, at all levels, springs gush out, and this water is very clear and good, a thing that Orientals attach great value to. The walls themselves are full of int

18 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER VI

It was in the first week of November that we moved into the house allotted to us in the town. It was in a good quarter, about half-way up the hill, and it was a very good house as houses go in Asia Minor. In front there was a narrow street, and the building opposite to us was popularly supposed to be the Angora University. It was, at any rate, a school of large boys or small men; and I think we must have looked right into the University Museum, for there was a mouldy-looking stuffed owl there. O

17 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER VII

After about twenty-four hours in the train, a train that stopped at every station, I looked out into the night and saw a strange place where huge rocks rose up against the sky. The train was slowing down while I looked, and I thought to myself that it would be an interesting place to see by daylight. Afterwards I saw it by daylight: by the light of nine hundred and thirty-eight days and by the moonlight of many nights, and it no longer seemed so interesting. It was like the old legend where the

16 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER VIII

For the next two weeks we were not allowed out of the church at all, not even into the little courtyard. Three at a time we were escorted by sentries to the latrine beneath the school opposite, and that was the only momentary glimpse we had of the outer world, save what little could be seen through the barred windows. We were treated exactly as the Turks treat their criminals. And after a few days even that small crossing beneath the sky was denied us, for they built a new latrine, a most slipsh

17 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER IX

Towards the latter end of May the great “strafe” ended. The Turks informed us that our punishment was fulfilled, and that we were to return to normal times again. For several days the senior officers of the different nationalities were very busy examining our new quarters and arranging matters generally, and then we began to move by masses out of the church. The French went first, to an Armenian house in the town. Soon afterwards the Russians followed to other houses in the same part of the Arme

16 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER X

To a large extent, the events chronicled in the last chapter overlap into the second year. Some have been recorded as the natural sequels to others, and some generalisations cover the whole of captivity. But, broadly speaking, I am trying to make the record as continuous as possible, and to preserve chronological order. We had been in Turkey for less than a year when we first established code correspondence with England. All our letters were censored in Vienna as well as in Constantinople, and p

15 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XI.

An accurate description of all our ups and downs, of liberty enlarged and liberty snatched away again, and of all the fluctuating fortunes of the camp would be as dull as our lives were, and as little likely to be voluntarily undergone as was our captivity. That gem of time cannot be polished in all its facets, lest the observer should be dazzled. All that will be attempted here is some account of the main events. Another man, looking at that time from a different angle, might write a book that

12 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XII

While in Turkey I only saw Italian prisoners once. They were locked into railway wagons, and when they tried to peer out through the barred windows a German N.C.O. brutally thrust at their faces with his stick. They were stated to have elected to come to Turkey rather than to remain in Austria, where food was short. They were on their way to work in a mine in the vilayet of Aidin. At one time there were a good many Serbs in Afion, but we saw very little of them. Those I saw were apparently dying

11 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XIII

After hanging fire for a very long time, the Berne Convention between Great Britain and the Sublime Porte was signed, and in the course of time copies reached Afion-Kara-Hissar. It seemed to us to be framed so that a coach-and-four could be driven through every one of its clauses. But, we were winning the war, and a great many of its provisions were applied. It was our Magna Charta. Under this convention a large number of prisoners were to be exchanged at once, 300 British and 700 Indians agains

8 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XIV

Our first night in the train was rather uncomfortably crowded, but we would not have minded being piled in heaps on that journey. In the morning we reached a place called Ushak, and there had rather a shock, for all thirteen officers were ushered into a dirty shed and informed that it was a hospital, and that we were all to be examined for cholera. This was more serious than appears on the face of it, for two of our party were rather out of sorts, and a Turkish doctor would be quite liable to mi

19 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XV

At last the ship came, and lay off Phokea, outside the Gulf of Smyrna. We went off in tugs, out of that lovely bay, more beautiful, to my mind, than the bay of Naples, and we went on board the Australian hospital ship “Kanowna,” where they gave us a royal welcome. This was the 1st of November, 1918. August the 9th , 1915— November the 1st , 1918. They had many cots prepared, expecting many sick and cripples. They asked as we came on board where the sick were, and we replied that they were dead.

3 minute read

Read Chapter

THE ROAD TO EN-DOR

This book, besides being an extraordinary story, will specially appeal to every one who is interested in spiritualism. It tells in minute and exact detail how two young British officers, who previously knew nothing of the subject, took up spiritualism—originally to amuse their fellow-prisoners in a Turkish prison camp; how they afterwards convinced not only the Turkish officials of their mediumistic powers, but even their fellow-officers; how eventually the “spook” ran the camp, securing many pr

2 minute read

Read Chapter

THE SILENCE OF COLONEL BRAMBLE

Westminster Gazette. —“‘The Silence of Colonel Bramble’ is the best composite character sketch I have seen to show France what the English gentleman at war is like ... much delightful humour.... It is full of good stories.... The translator appears to have done his work wonderfully well.” Daily Telegraph. —“This book has enjoyed a great success in France, and it will be an extraordinary thing if it is not equally successful here.... Those who do not already know the book in French will lose noth

2 minute read

Read Chapter

A KUT PRISONER

This book is the remarkable story of the first three British officers to escape from a Turkish prison camp. It contains a description of the siege and the march of 1,700 miles to Kastamuni; of their capture, escape, and dramatic rescue, and finally the voyage in an open boat to Alupka, in the Crimea. This book falls naturally in two parts; the first is a sonnet sequence describing the author’s capture with his battalion in the great March Offensive, his weary tramp as a prisoner, and internment

1 minute read

Read Chapter

SAPPER DOROTHY LAWRENCE

Daily Mail. —“Her very astonishing tale ... an extraordinary performance.” Daily Chronicle. —“Miss Lawrence’s book is interesting and well done.” Scotsman. —“Her exploit supplies the materials for a fine tale of adventure, and she tells her story uncommonly well.”...

20 minute read

Read Chapter