Part 2

_Clothing._--Soon after their arrival in camp the prisoners were taken to a large courtyard, in which they stripped off all their clothes and foot-gear. As a health precaution all this stuff was scrapped and destroyed. After being disinfected, the men received a complete new outfit consisting of two pairs of drawers and two flannel shirts, a cholera belt, socks, a pair of trousers and a dark blue cloth tunic with linen lining and uniform buttons, and a red fez. Leather slippers for privates and shoes for sergeants and corporals complete the outfit, the smartness of which leaves nothing to be desired. Although on the day of our visit the thermometer stood at about 53°F. many of the men were also wearing their thick cloth overcoats. Every prisoner has fastened in his tunic a small metal plate bearing his registration number. Non-commissioned officers are distinguished by a white linen armlet, crossed by a blue band for corporals, and by a red band for sergeants. The sergeant-major wears a red armlet.

_Hygiene._--The drinking-water used in camp is drawn by two steam pumps from a well sunk to a great depth close to the Nile. The Nile water, after passing through a kind of natural filter, is thus lifted into a reservoir above the camp, and is distributed in all directions by gravity. The bacteriological analysis made every week when the supply was first opened--now once a month--showed the water to be perfectly pure.

Water for washing purposes is plentiful. Hot and cold shower-baths are installed throughout the camp. The prisoners are obliged to use them once a week, but may, if they choose, have a bath four times a day. In summer especially the baths are never idle.

Prisoners get plenty of soap and wash their own linen on wooden tables arranged under water taps.

Two high-pressure steam disinfecting chambers serve the camp, and once a week all blankets are passed through them. The camp contains no fleas, lice, or bugs.

The day latrines are 100 yards from the living quarters. They are of the Turkish kind, with movable tubs--1 tub for every 10 men. Every tub contains some cresol solution. The night-soil is removed daily by the Cairo road authorities and converted into manure. Some latrines close to the barracks are kept for night use and are locked up during the day.

_Medical Attention._--The medical service of Maadi Camp is in the hands of head-doctor Captain Scrimgeour, who in time of peace practised in Nazareth. He is assisted by an English doctor-adjutant, and 4 Arab doctors, natives of Syria. All these doctors speak Turkish and Arabic. Nine English orderlies and 12 Turkish orderlies carry out the sick duties. A dentist comes to camp when required.

The infirmary included three well-appointed quarters built in masonry, and able to hold 40 patients.

The infirmary bedding accommodation consists of iron bedsteads with spring mattress and stuffed mattress. The blankets are warm and unlimited in number.

_Illness._--Every morning 300-400 prisoners come on sick parade. This number represents about 8 per cent. of the strength. Although these men often come to be treated for trifling ailments, such as slight constipation, or even a small boil, the doctors make it a rule not to prevent anyone going sick, as this course enables them to keep the closer watch upon the health of the camp.

On the occasion of our visit there were in the infirmary 7 men laid up: 1 with itch, 1 with diarrhoea, 1 with neuralgia, 1 with an abscess in the neck, 1 with articular rheumatism, and 1 with gastritis. A prisoner who had been trepanned by the doctors on account of damage done to his skull before his capture, was gradually recovering the power of motion and his normal sensibility.

Since the camp was opened there have been 35 cases of tertian ague, all from the Hedjaz, Mecca, Taïf and Jeddah; but no case of aggravated malaria. Eleven cases of tuberculosis were sent into the Egyptian Red Cross hospitals and to that at Abbassiah. Six cases of trachoma are now undergoing treatment with applications of protargol. In summer there have been a few cases of ordinary diarrhoea. The camp has not suffered from dysentery, typhoid, typhus, nor any other epidemic disease.

All prisoners are inoculated against smallpox, typhoid and cholera.

_The Severely Wounded and those who have lost Limbs._--A special quarter of the camp contains 55 men who have lost limbs in the war. They are provided with the most perfect prothesis apparatus, jointed artificial limbs. Among them are 2 blind men. Sixty other wounded who have escaped more lightly suffer from stiffness of the joints, ankylosis and atrophy. They are well provided with sticks and crutches.

_Deaths._--Two aged prisoners have died in the camp, both from apoplexy. They were interred with military honours in the Moslem burial-ground nearest to the camp.

_Exercise._--No limit is placed upon the time during which exercise may be taken in the open space round the barracks.

_Work._--The prisoners have not to do work. Several attempts have been made to teach them boot-making, but their results were so unpromising that they were given up. Although there are many agriculturists among the prisoners, it would not do to use them for work on the land along with the natives, owing to the ease with which they could escape and the need for having many soldiers to guard them. However, for some weeks past the camp commandant has made trial of using some prisoners for market gardening on lands beside the Nile, just outside the camp.

_Discipline._--Under the head of discipline there are hardly any complaints to make, and punishment has rarely had to be inflicted. One case of escape was punished with three months' imprisonment without any alteration in diet. Only tobacco was cut off. An old offender was brought before a court-martial, and sentenced by it to six months' imprisonment. The prison quarters are cells built entirely of cement, with two barred windows well above the ground to light the chamber, which is of ample size.

_Right to Make Complaints._--The camp commandant makes a general inspection every day. Every prisoner has the right to step forward and make his complaints. The commandant converses with the prisoners through the medium of several British officers who speak Arabic and Turkish. Moreover, the prisoners have the right of appeal to the Commander-in-Chief and to Brig.-General Casson, who often make tours of inspection through the camps.

_Religion._--The prisoners have every opportunity for practising their religious observances. For the Mahometans a small mosque has been built, round which they spread their praying carpets. Some of them read the Koran regularly; others seem indifferent. Despite differences of race, origin, and even of religion, good-feeling prevails among the prisoners and quarrels are very few in number.

_Games and Recreations._--As regards games and recreations, the prisoners are interested only in wrestling, cards and dominoes. They have been introduced to football without success. Some have shown great skill in the manufacture of mandolines, guitars, and tambourines. All materials as well as games are provided gratis by the British Government. The camp commandant has bought the men some gramophones. Many prisoners make articles of coloured beads--handbags, purses, necklaces, bracelets, etc.--which show considerable artistic taste. We bought one of these beautiful pieces of work as a specimen. The articles sell readily in the curiosity shops at Cairo. One section of 1,200 prisoners netted from the sales a sum of 2,500 francs in a fortnight.

_Correspondence._--Most of the prisoners receive very few letters or none. They are allowed to write in their language once a fortnight, but take very little advantage of the permission. It seems that many letters addressed to their families in Turkey come back again, as the addressee has not been found. Some Turks captured near Bagdad and transported to Burmah received their money from home, but have not received any more during the one or two months that have elapsed since they were transferred to Maadi. It is probable that the money was sent home again, or forwarded officially to the new place of internment, and this takes a long time. Several prisoners have taken advantage of their captivity to learn reading and writing with their comrades' assistance. Many men had money on them when they were taken. This money is lodged, and handed to them at demand in monthly payments. Many soldiers have received money orders from their families through the International Committee of the Red Cross. Parcels, which are seldom received, are opened in the presence of the addressee. Only knives are confiscated.

_Help for Prisoners._--Leaving out of consideration the wish expressed by some men to have a little money for buying extra tobacco and coffee, we are satisfied that there are no needy persons in the camp at Maadi.

_Mentality._--The many questions which we have asked show that there is no dissatisfaction among the prisoners with regard to the treatment they receive. Prisoners have mentioned to us chiefly their anxiety about their families, of whom they have no news. The Armenian clergy at Cairo look after their fellow-countrymen.

~4. The Egyptian Red Cross Hospital at Cairo~.

_(Visited on January 4, 1917.)_

The Egyptian Red Cross, under the presidency of His Highness Prince Fuad Pasha, being anxious to help its co-religionists, founded in March, 1915, a hospital for sick and wounded prisoners of war. This hospital is under the sole management of the Turkish Red Cross, which is in touch with the British authorities through Dr. Keatinge, Professor of the Faculty of Medicine at Cairo.

_Sanitary Staff._--All the hospital doctors are Egyptian. In addition to the doctor-in-chief, Dr. Abbas Bey Helmey, two doctors, three surgeons, and one druggist live in the hospital.

Consulting doctors come from the town when sent for to treat nose, ear and eye troubles. A Cairo specialist also places his X-ray apparatus at the service of the hospital patients. The matron is an American, and has three English nurses under her.

Thirty-two orderlies do the ward work.

_Accommodation._--The Egyptian Red Cross Hospital is installed in an old palace of Omar-Pasha Lufti, situated in a large garden, which is very shady and well kept. The dimensions of the wards assure easy circulation of air and perfect ventilation. As the building was not designed to serve its present purpose, the various staffs are somewhat scattered, but this difficulty has been got over in a most practical manner. A huge corridor gives communication between the wards, which are usually 23 feet square and 26 feet high. The large wards considerably exceed these measurements, and their tasteful decoration gives them a characteristic style. On the first floor, the rooms for the consumptive patients measure 16 by 16 by 13 feet--a very good cubical allowance for the four beds in each. The floor is of large flag-stones. Most of the rooms command the garden and a courtyard planted with trees. The building occupied by the guard is quite separate from the hospital. Electricity is used throughout the buildings.

_Bedding._--The iron bedsteads, painted with white ripolin, are separated from one another by pedestal tables. The spring mattress, stuffed mattress, sheets and pillows are in very sound condition. There is no limit set to the number of blankets allowed. The beds are covered with pretty blue and white quilts, with the Red Cross in the middle. This quite recent innovation has a very pretty effect.

_Food._--The commissariat is arranged by contract with a head cook. The menus are drawn up by the doctors according to the diet prescribed. We tasted the day's food and found it excellent. All provisions examined by us were of good quality and carefully overlooked. The kitchen, with its well-fitted ranges and polished utensils, struck us favourably. The cooking and attendance is done by persons engaged by the chef.

Each man is provided with two bowls of tinned copper and a drinking cup. All invalids get sweetened tea twice a day. Officers may choose tea or coffee. The following is the hospital dietary:

FOR OFFICERS. _Breakfast_: European bread; fresh milk; 3 eggs; tea; coffee. _Lunch_: Mutton; two dishes of vegetables, or macaroni rice; salad; rice pudding; coffee; fruit. _Dinner_: The same as lunch, but without fruit.

ORDINARY DIET. _Breakfast_: Arab bread; sweetened fresh milk. _Lunch_: Arab bread; beef; rice, vegetables. _Dinner_: Arab bread; rice soup; rice pudding.

MILK DIET. _Breakfast_: Bread, 350 grm.; sweetened milk. _Lunch_: Arab bread; soup; beef-tea; rice pudding. _Dinner_: Bread, 350 grm.; sweetened milk.

FEVER DIET. _Breakfast_: Milk, 400 grm., without sugar. _Lunch_: 400 grm. of milk without sugar. _Dinner_: 400 grm. of milk without sugar.

On Sunday and Thursday mutton is replaced by game. On the same two days a course of sweetened rice and macaroni is substituted for fruit. The ration of Arab bread is 780 grammes for ordinary diet; that of European bread 450 grammes. The proportion of other articles is equally liberal.

_Clothing._--The sick men's garments are consigned to a storehouse, and are replaced by 2 nightshirts, a hospital jacket with a hood, and a pair of slippers.

_Hygiene._--Drinking water is drawn from the town main and filtered before use. There is an ample installation of lavatories with running water, baths with hot and cold douches, and Turkish baths. Turkish latrines have been fitted in the annexes of the palace. Natives do the laundry work and ironing.

_Special Quarters._--The Red Cross Hospital is provided with a spacious, well-lighted theatre for operations, and all the necessary apparatus. In a neighbouring ward a powerful fumigating stove, built by natives after a French model, enables instruments and dressings to be completely sterilised. Since the introduction of this perfected method of sterilisation cases of infection and erysipelas have entirely disappeared from the hospital, and post-operation mortality has been reduced to barely one quarter per cent.

There is a laboratory devoted to summary analyses; more complete chemical or bacteriological analyses are carried out in the town institution. The dispensary is well supplied, containing all the most modern medicaments.

Six wards are reserved for tuberculous cases, who have their own special nurses. Such consumptives as are not confined to bed pass most of the day in one of the palace gardens which is assigned to them.

One ward is occupied by wounded officers; another by the non-commissioned officers. Two more wards are set apart for patients suffering from dysentery. Operation cases are assembled in a special chamber adjoining the theatre. Three comfortable English hospital tents erected in the garden serve as accommodation for convalescents who have to vacate their beds in the palace when an unexpected influx of sick or wounded prisoners takes place. All the wards are clean and well kept; at the head of each bed is a medical chart detailing the illness and the temperature.

_Sickness._--Since March 17, 1915, the date of its foundation, up to the day of our visit, the Egyptian Red Cross Hospital has treated 2,245 wounded or sick prisoners.

There are at the present time 149 prisoners under treatment, 8 Ottoman officers and 141 soldiers, distributed as follows:

Surgical cases (wounds): 66; among them 13 invalids and 6 who have undergone amputation and have been detained a long time in the hospital.

Internal ailments: 38; we may mention among the most serious cases of this kind noticed by us, 4 suffering from bilious haemoglobinurea, all from Bagdad; 6 from dysentery, anaemic and enfeebled patients; 4 from chronic nephritis.

Eye affections: 25.

Consumptives: 20.

Which make up the total of 149 cases.

Among the officers under treatment we may mention: 1 wounded right knee, 1 scalp wound, 1 compound fracture of the thigh, 1 neck wound, 1 bullet wound in the chest, 1 bullet wound in the face, all recent cases coming from El Arish.

_Deaths_:

Number Number Cause of Death. of Deaths of Deaths in 1915. in 1916. Surgical cases 30 17 Pleurisy 2 5 Dysentery 8 19 Typhoid 1 1 Pericarditis 1 2 Pneumonia 3 11 Pulmonary tuberculosis -- 26 Intestinal tuberculosis -- 21 Nephritis -- 5 Gangrene -- 1 Hepatitis -- 1 Pernicious anaemia -- 1 --- --- Total 45 110 === ===

The dead were buried in the Musulman cemetery with military honours, such comrades as were well enough attending the ceremony.

~5. The Cairo Citadel Camp.~

_(Visited on January 3, 1917.)_

This camp occupies the curious Jewel-Palace, one of the monuments of the citadel, and contains only women and children coming from Hedjaz, who were captured near Mecca.

The dates of arrival are as follows:

Women and Children. 1st convoy of 123 September 11, 1916 2nd " " 66 October 16, 1916 3rd " " 26 " 28, 1916 4th " " 82 November 7, 1916 5th " " 132 " 29, 1916

_Numbers._--The total includes 229 women and 207 children (7 of whom were born in camp), and a further batch of 200 women is expected shortly.

_The Head Matron_ is Miss Lewis. It is she who has the management and full control of this camp, which, by its character and its diversity of nationalities, classes and religions, demands great patience, tact and kindness--qualities possessed in the highest degree by Miss Lewis. She devotes herself entirely, and most capably, to this often very ungrateful task, and we welcome this chance of conveying to her the expression of our appreciation.

Those interned are divided into three classes. The first class consists of officers' wives and children; the second class, of those of the non-commissioned officers; and the third class, of soldiers' wives and servants. This classification has been adopted in order that the dormitories shall be occupied by persons of as nearly as possible the same social standing.

_Accommodation._--The important group of buildings known as Saleh-el-din (Saladin) comprises a great number of rooms whose size and curious ornateness contrast strangely with their present use as a concentration camp for civilian prisoners. From the windows of these apartments one looks across the panorama of Cairo, with its mosques, its minarets and the misty background of the desert.

The 40 inhabited rooms are allotted in three sections, corresponding to the social classification established for the interned women.

The rooms and corridors are paved throughout with marble, but the general distribution of mats and even beautiful carpets gives an impression of comfort. The large dimensions of the chambers, as compared with the smallness of the number of occupants, give plenty of room for exercise and work. Corridors and vestibules connect the different buildings. They are lighted with paraffin lamps.

An extensive garden is always at the prisoners' disposal.

_Bedding._--The japanned iron bedsteads are furnished with spring and stuffed mattresses, sheets, blankets, and pillows. In their arrangement one notices the influence of personal taste. Embroidered coverlets, hangings and upholstery give to some of the apartments an aspect of comfort and even of elegance. The military administration supplies all the furniture and the regulation bedding, to which the inmates may add what they like at their own expense.

_Dress._--The English authorities supply women and children with all their linen and other clothing.

_Food._--Provisioning is a private enterprise, carried out under a contract. The food is the same for all classes, and is unlimited in quantity. The women are given as much as they desire of each dish. No complaint was made concerning the food, which is wholesome and palatable. We visited the kitchen and sampled the day's menu. Milk in large quantities is provided for the children. The meals are served in three well-appointed dining-rooms.

The hours for meals are: Breakfast, from 7.30 to 8.30. Lunch, from 12.30 to 1.80. Supper, from 5.30 to 6.80.

_Hygiene._--Water is supplied from the town mains. Lavatories are installed in the corridors near the dormitories. The inmates may have hot and cold baths every day. As to laundry work, those of the first class can have it done by their own servants or pay the third-class women to do it.

The W.C.'s consist of movable tubs on the Turkish system, each containing a solution of cresol. They are emptied daily by contract into the citadel cesspool, which communicates with the main sewer of Cairo.

_Medical Care and Illnesses._--The Head Physician, Captain Scrimgeour, comes to the camp every day; a Greek doctor also visits it four times a week at 9 o'clock in the morning. These two doctors both speak Turkish and Arabic fluently. Three trained nurses and an English midwife take charge of the infirmary. As Moslems usually have very good teeth, the services of a dentist are not often needed.

The infirmary is very commodious. It consists of a consulting-room, with a couch for examinations; a surgery, and a sick ward.

In the infirmary register the name, the disease, the treatment and the course of the illness are all duly noted.

When the internment camp was opened a hundred prisoners applied for treatment daily; many had suffered great privations previous to their capture. At the present time only 5 or 10 patients take advantage of the doctor's visit; and these are mild cases, chiefly bronchitis, constipation, diarrhoea, and eye affections among women and children, and some cases of heart affections and chronic bronchitis among the old people.

There is neither malaria, dysentery nor typhus in the camp, and no epidemic malady. An early case of tuberculosis, without Koch's bacillus in the sputa, was cured.

On the day of our visit to the infirmary we found 5 patients in bed or crouched in the oriental manner upon their bedsteads; 1 suffering from senile paralysis, 2 from bronchitis, 1 from inflammation of the ears, and 1 from general debility.

_Maternity._--Confinements not being uncommon, it was necessary to establish a maternity ward. There were 5 births during the last three months of 1915. Two more occurred upon the day we inspected the camp, mothers and infants doing well.

_Deaths._--Up to that time there had only been one death at the Citadel Camp, that of a baby prematurely born, which died from debility at the age of 18 days.

_Education._--A school has been started in the camp, and all boys as well as girls up to 12 years old are obliged to attend it. A mistress teaches them Turkish and Arabic, and also gives them half an hour's instruction in English daily.

_Religious Services._--The imaum came once to hold a Mahometan service, but the interned women expressed no desire that he should repeat his visit. However, an old woman, chosen from among them, reads the Koran aloud upon feast days.

_Intellectual Diversions._--The women seem to have no needs or desires on this score. They pass their days in talking and smoking.

The camp has been presented with a gramophone.