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_From the portrait by C. Percival Small, Esq._]
BEING THE EXPERIENCES OF AN OFFICER DURING TWO AND A HALF YEARS AS A PRISONER OF WAR
BY CAPTAIN H. G. GILLILAND LOYAL NORTH LANCASHIRE REGIMENT
HODDER AND STOUGHTON LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO
_Printed in Great Britain by Hazell, Watson & Finey, Ld., London and Aylesbury._
MR. JAMES W. GERARD _Late U.S.A. Ambassador to the Imperial Court at Berlin_
TO WHOM EVERY BRITISH PRISONER OWES A DEBT OF GRATITUDE WHICH CAN NEVER BE REPAID
The writer has been so constantly and earnestly appealed to to write his experiences, and so weary recounting them, that he has at last decided to put into print a short account of things as they really happened within his own personal knowledge during his two and a half years’ imprisonment in Germany. He is also encouraged to do so for other and more important reasons. There are so many people throughout our Empire who are unfortunate enough to have intimate friends and relations in captivity in Germany. In the opinion of the writer these people ought to know, from one who has had a bitter experience, to which these pages will testify, the true conditions under which those nearest and dearest to them exist.
To those who are more fortunate, and who may be inclined to be sceptical towards the newspaper reports of German brutality, it is hoped this narrative will come as a revelation.
Further, there must be many who are already feeling war-weary and despondent, and who consequently may be ready to embrace any opportunity of making peace, even on the basis of the _status quo_. If the revelations disclosed herein bring home to these a knowledge of the infamous, relentless, and savage character of the Hun, deliberately dehumanised by the State for the purposes of the State, the writer will feel that his labour has not been in vain.
A rough sketch of the circumstances which led up to my being taken a prisoner of war are more or less indispensable. We were called up at a moment’s notice from another part of the line, where our division was in reserve, to a position in front of a line of our trenches lost to the enemy a few hours previously in their attempted advance on Calais. These trenches had been held by Indian regiments, and small blame to them for losing them. Judging from what we saw, they must have had a pretty rough time.