John Alan Lyde Caunter

13 Days John Alan Lyde Caunter

Publisher Marketing: On placing before the public this account of my escape from Germany and some episodes from my life in two prison camps, I feel that I must make clear that it was only due to the fact that I had two definite supplementary objects to attain, that I succeeded in making myself launch out in the following pages. The first of these objects is to add my quota to the information before the public relating to the treatment and existence of those who, in prisons in Germany, have suffered and are suffering for their country. My second object is to try to throw a little light on the marvellous spirit of the prisoners as a whole. Think what it means to be shut up for years under such conditions. Let me quote the prisoner poet, Lieut. Harvey, who, in Gloucestershire Friends, vividly describes what prison means in the following lines: Laugh, oh laugh loud, all ye who long ago Adventure found in gallant company! Safe in stagnation; laugh, laugh bitterly, While on this filthiest backwater of time's flow, Drift we and rot till something set us free! It is always a fight against this sort of thing that the prisoner of war is waging. Some apparently find such a fight difficult, but the majority do somehow keep a hold on themselves and retain their energy and hopefulness. "Barbed-wire" disease is now officially recognised, and internment in neutral countries of those who have done the longest spells in prison is the outcome of this.