August 1918

“Dear Barbara, Rebecca and little Beth,

Thank you for your continued support for me and your wonderful letters. I am pleased that you are interested in my information about what we are doing here. It is so different from the first few years of our confinement when we were bored. Now I am busy every moment of every day.

Several Adult Schools have been formed here of which the most interesting is that one whose members are drawn from the penal compound. In this compound are collected all the supposed dangerous and doubtful characters, chiefly aliens who have come to camp directly from prison. Among them are naturally a number of striking and original characters, and probably no Adult School has had more lively and unorthodox discussions than this one.

These men have suffered many moral dangers before being thus collected together, and have lacked discipline and occupation. Some of the senior men in the camp have devoted themselves, heart and soul, to helping these comrades.
Sometimes the visitors are called upon to settle personal difficulties between men and sections in the camp. These were bound to arise, as men get on each others’ nerves owing to their enforced intimacy of living, and as the irritation and irresponsibility of particular men developed from captivity. Leaders sometimes need to be changed, or committees reconstituted, and an outside friend or arbiter is of real help in such matters.

In the course of their work the Emergency men naturally come into close relationship with the officers responsible for the running of the camps, a relationship which in some cases developed into the intimacy of friendship. Knowing well the needs and desires of the prisoners, and also the official outlook and difficulties, it is often possible for our visitors to make suggestions to both sides as to how desired improvements might be carried out, and so things are done which, if put forward as blunt requests or demands, would have met with certain refusal.

Love from Peter”

“Dear Barbara

Do you remember the stories of the odd collection of men that Paul and I wrote to you when we were first here? There are so many of these misfits who been sent here quite wrongly. The variety of life histories is extraordinary. There are men of no nationality, legally, and men who have no notion of which is their real country. A man, for example, who was born on board ship, of an Italian mother, and whose father was reputed to have been a Transylvanian born in Malta. Anyhow, he bore an Austrian name so he was sent into camp.

There even came into camp too, from time to time, men who had been fighting in the British army, and had not considered themselves of alien nationality. One delightful man had been the colonel of a camel corps in the British force in Egypt, and we greatly enjoyed the moment when an inspecting General hit upon this man with the enquiry as to what his occupation had been before internment!

There is a clergy-man of the Church of England, who seems always on the point of being liberated, but has not been.

A man crippled in both feet was one day brought into the camp. He was a German officer who had been captured by the Russians and sent to Siberia. He escaped into China, getting his feet frostbitten by night exposure. He was helped through China by German sympathisers, crossed the Pacific to the States, travelled across the continent, and sailed for Europe on a neutral ship. The usual British warship appeared as they neared Europe and the man was detected during the search and brought to England for internment.

An Alsatian doctor, with a German name, is interned here though he had come over from America to help the cause of France. He was kept many months in camp while his papers were tossed about between representatives of France and our own country. Probably he would not have been released at all but for the intervention of a prominent French politician, who was his personal friend. This doctor, having tested the trials of internment, set up in Switzerland an organisation for helping the interned civilians in all countries.

Schools have been founded and developed into little universities, in spite of the increasing difficulties which many students feel in concentrating on any steady work. There are many musicians among the interned, so that really fine orchestras are possible, and these, with the theatrical societies and choral unions, do much to enliven the evenings. We are organised to death. There are athletic clubs, kitchen committees, relief committees, workshop committees, Y.M.C.A. committees. Camp journals are appearing, where circumstances and the censor allow, and the camp poets, artists, and entertainers are important citizens. I’ve counted 149 different committees at work.

Love from Peter”

“Dear Barbara,

Have I ever told you about Schiebung? This is one of the words most frequently heard in camp. The best literal translation of the word seems to be shoving. In camp it is applied to any transaction by which something is achieved outside the officially allowed methods. From one point of view the camp is like a great company of school-boys.

Life is lived under strict rules, which we had no share in making, and which we feel challenged to break whenever it can safely be done. The more ingenious the method the more it is enjoyed. The psychology of officers and guards are closely studied and every weakness taken advantage of, though kindness isn’t abused. Things that are specially forbidden, such as socialist newspapers, are among the most certain to appear. Alcohol is prohibited, but empty bottles continually turn up in deserted corners.

It is amusing for someone like me who has the confidence of both the officers and the other prisoners, to watch the battle of wits that goes on between them. It is necessary, also, to be careful on the one hand not to betray in conversation the confidences of my fellow internees.

Love
Peter”

“Dear Barbara,

One of my friends has been taken to an isolation hospital for T.B. and other infectious diseases; which is located on the hillside. For the more seriously ill patients a special ward is in use at Noble’s Hospital. Hopefully, this will be better for him than the experience I had of being here at our camp hospital.

Many here pass their time in the sports stadium, or practicing their music or learning their lines for shows in the theatre. Others work in the joinery and craft workshops. I think I already mentioned many of the things that we make but recently we have increased it to include pin holders, match stands, and paper knives. Wooden items include model ships in bottles, book safes with secret compartments, sewing and glove boxes and toys.

Our artists produce water colours, postcards, and steel engravings; the proceeds from the sale of these prints are given to the sick and burial club to insure a caring response to sick and dying prisoners and to ensure (when needed) a proper burial.
Turkish prisoners with a detailed knowledge of wild life in their native land, produce a great variety of beaded snakes; the open mouth of the snake is used as a pin cushion and the body of the reptile is slung over the shoulder so enabling the sewer to work freely with both hands. So realistic these snakes are in execution and colouring that I have seen people back away from them as if they were alive.

One day recently the guards arrested two men who were chatting together rather loudly as they walked along. The soldiers, no doubt new arrivals from England; marched the two men at gun-point to the main guard-room, there to their dismay they found out that the conversation they had overheard was Manx, not German as they had thought.

Another incident happened when a farmer’s cart wheels sank into a tunnel on the Knockaloe Beg Lane, which runs along the North perimeter of the camp. Some of our group used to crawl through it of an evening and go to a public house in Peel; returning again to the camp after closing time.

Here is a list of what we can now buy and costing either 6d or 1s depending. Banjo strings, 6d; bay rum 6d per bottle; black lead, 1 shilling per tin, boot polish, blacking, 1 shilling per tin, Brilliantine, Nail brushes, Shaving and Hair Brushes, Buttons, Calico ,Cigarette Papers, Wills, “Evening Star”, Player’s No. 2 Virginia, Player’s No. 3 Virginia, Horse Meat, Sausage, Smoked or Fresh, with or without bone, costs varying per lb, Laces, Leather, Looking Glasses, Moustache Binders, Slippers, Soap, Brooke’s Monkey Carbolic, Lifebuoy, Nubolic Matchless Cleanser, Pears Unscented, 6d cake, Shaving, per stick lid., Soups.

One of the plays that we will be having at our theatre is called Dynamit, and it was written by an internee, William Karn, and directed by E. Hameister, who also plays the lead, with another 11 men in the cast. It is set in a villa in Berlin. Of course the language used is German, so not everyone will be able to understand the dialogue, but they will go anyway, as it is a diversion. It is a long play, starting at 7.45 and going on until 9.30.

Love from Peter”