The Amman Valley Chronicle and East Carmarthen News

Brynamman Lieutenant's Experiences. All the returned prisoners of war agree on one thing—they absolutely hate the Ger- mans, and one and all relate terrible tales of suffering and of persistent, unnecessary ill- treatment. If verified, I am certain that all these tales would be founded on actual facts. No prisoner captured by the Germans was provided with sufficient food to live, if he d)d not get parcels from home. Those who did not get parcels, or who were unable to obtain more food than was given them by the official German authorities, died of starvation. Hun- dreds died in this way, and hundreds more from diseases which their reduced vitality could not resist. The problems facing us in Germany were the same, and the only difference in our ex- perience lies in the various ways we solved the problem of food. Let me quote an example. Ten wounded officers (all of us movable cases) travelled from Friday night till Sunday afternoon, and the only food we received consisted of one raw-meat sandwich and two plates of herbal soup. On Sunday night we were taken to a Russian and French officers' camp near Cassel. On arriving, the camp authorities would give us no food that night as it was too late." Next morning we were given what they called breakfast, namely, a cup of half-cold coffee substitute made from bark, seaweed, acorns, burnt grain, &c. We preferred water, but we had to buy cups before we could get a drink of any kind. And so on; it was the same tale repeatedever and over again until we had our parcels and were able to live independently of the German food. The ordinary bread ration came to one slice a day; we were given cne small loaf a week, and the first job was to measure it care- fully with a ruler, and then mark it off into seven equal parts. In our mess, under no protext whatever was the daily ration to be exceeded. In case of illness, the others went short for the time being. This ration, a few rotten potatoes and bad soup was all we re- ceived in the summer of 1917. The camp water was not fit to drink without being boiled, and no wonder that dysentery went about. However, as we weie all recent cap- tures, we felt fairly fit at the start, and so were better able to hold out until the parcels came. Apart from roll call and meals, we spent the time lying on our beds. This period lasted from the beginning of May until the middle of August. Luckily the weather was hot, so we did not feel the need of the clothes we did not have; all we had were the tattered remnants of the suit we took over the top, and on that trip we do not usually take any spare luggage. The beds in this camp were wooden boards with paper mattresses. The latter were veterans, and the inhabitants thereof had also been starved, and revelled in the new British blood. These inhabitants were large, and white with red spots; the hunters were utterly' without pity until all were finally wiped out. We also suffered terribly from flies and the insanitary condition of the camp. At the itme we were not in a very good frame of mind to see the humorous side of our life, but on looking back we can see that it was not entirely lacking in this element. As we had no parcels, we had practically ro tobacco, and I well remember our experiments with the German substitutes sold in the can- teen. Tobacco was scarce in Germany even in 1917, and the manufacturers could sell as tobacco anything that had about 5 per cent. of actual tobacco in it. The remainder could be anything—and it was. The first time I tried it I was in a two-room at Karlsruhe, and my fellow-lodger turned faint. (In self- defence I must add that he was not very strong just then). In this camp most of us had conversational classes with French officers, and one day, after about a quarter of an hour's talk, I asked my friend whether he had been gassed, as he kept on coughing rather badly. With true French politeness he explained that his chest was weak, but his coughing ceased directly my pipe went out. I understood it all, and apoJogised when I met another man smoking German tobacco. Space does not permit me even to men- tion a thousandth part of our makeshifts and schemes adopted to vary the monotony and generally to make life tolerable. I can only just refer to other German substitutes; they had substitutes for tea, coffee, leather, soap, &c. For the last-mentioned, German science had invented over a thousand substitutes, but they all went one better than Monkey Brand —they would not wash clothes, but they could destroy them. Their substitutes for tea and tobacco could be used indifferently as c 'th(,r, with equally unsatisfactory results, and we knew whether the paper had been delivered or not by the presence or absence of the weird smell of their substitute ink. Their substitute soap and war-time razors as instruments of torture would have charmed the heart of the cruellest torture expert of the Dark Ages. The leather substitute was a Conchy, and made absolutely no effort to stop water. All articles of clothing (shirts, collars, vests, blouses, waiatcoars, skirts, &c.) were made of paper, and did not look at all badly—until they were caught in a shower. Then-but, unfortunately, we were prisoners behind two or three rows of barbed wire, even during showers." Such are the experiences of Lieut. W. Rees, son of Mr. and Mrs. Rees, Brynpedol Farm, Brynamman, who is one of Bryn- amman's most brilliant sons, being a 'B.A. of Oxford with Honours in English. He was a prisoner of war for 17 months. B.

You can still buy WAR SAVINGS I CERTIFICATES — — I You can buy War Savings | Certificates through your local War Savings Association, or from any Money Order Post Office, Bank, or Shopkeeper acting as Official Agent. Each Certificate costs 15/6, and increases in value every year until, at the end of five years, it will be worth £ 1. This is equivalent to 5 per cent. Compound Interest, free of Income Tax. If you need the money back, you can get it by giving a few days' notice. But it is much better not to part with your War Savings Certificates before they reach their full value, as the longer you keep them the bigger your profit. £ 1. for 15f6 11

Our Poultry Column. POPULAR POULTRY. If one was to try for a vote as to the most popular breed of fowls, he would be a rash man who would forecast the result. There are many breeds great favourites by the people who keep them, and where more than one breed is kept the owner would be at a loss to say which is the best. The man who has only the one lot confined to his own back- yard would surely plump for them, but that might be misleading in arriving at a con- clusion. But if we came down to tke ques- tion of the most useful, a heavy or a light breed, then the heavy would win hands down. Certainly among the heavy breeds are some grand fowls, such as the Orpington, Sussex, Rhode Island Red, and Wyandotte. The first-named can be had in many colours, and yet the Buff, White and Black are the best known and most popular in the order given. It would be possible to find some Buffs -in every town and village in England, and though they might not come up to our ideal of the breed, still they could be called by that name, and would breed pretty true to their type and colour. This colour was the result of an effort to give the industry a fowl which would combine laying and table qualities, and yet be a nice bird to look upon. That the latter succeeded, we all know, be- cause the Buffs are one of the most attractive fowls we have when once bred up to the idea of the originator. The White and Black have both come along well, although the last colour has fallen back lately, be- cause they are now rather indifferent layers. When once a breed begins to fall off as layers, they soon find that most folk will drop them to take up a more profitable variety. I think that much of this comes from the race for size and bulk, and has destroyed the utility qualities which they once possessed. Wherever a white fowl is fancied, then the Orpington can get a look in, because they prove useful as well as orna- mental. Not a few people prefer them as layers to the Wyandotte, but this is not the general idea, and one I could not support. As a family the Orpington is a very useful heavy breed, and one of the best for all- round work and all conditions. Of course, the Sussex and Reds are both heavy breeds, and in point of shape and char- acter there is much similarity in them. As a rule, the Sussex is the largest, but when the Red is produced for size for table work, then they can be made up to enormous weights. But this is much the same with any breed. Take any variety you like, and you can find some of different shape and character, large and small, good and bad colour; yet they one can see that much depends upon the can all be truly called pure bred. Now, any- one can see that much depends upon the breeding pen and how it is mated as to whether the progeny shall come anywhere near the ideal. When raising for table, only size and shape counts, while colour is not considered. Between the Sussex and the Red there is difference in the colour of leg and skin, the former being all white, while the latter has a yellow leg and a tinged yellow skin. This does not mean good or bad quality, for while the demand is for the white skin, the expert says that the yellow skin is the best quality and sweetest meat. Another popular heavy breed is the Wyan- dotte, and they can be had in a great variety of colours. But the most popular of all is the White, and these are kept in large num- ber*. Almost everyone who knows a fowl .knows what the Wyandotte is like, and they have made a reputation which is known all over the world. There is one thing with all the heavy breeds—they answer the purpose best of the man who has a small place and wants a fowl for all purposes. With the exception of the Dorking, they all lay a brown egg, hence producing a marketable article; then they make good mothers, so that if the man who has a small place and cannot ran an incubator, he can turn to the heavy breed for a hen to do the hatching. They are much more docile than the light breeds, for often a five- Coot WR fence will keep them in bounds; and yet I have seen Leghorns fly over an eight-foot fence with ease. Taking them aU round, the heavy breeds are the most useful of the poultry worlds.

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