Papers concerning the Treatment of British Prisoners of War at Kut [‎30v] (60/62)

The tone of the inhabitants of Baghdad came as a tremendous surprise to
us. Though the streets were crowded with people not a word was said, and
we might have been walking through a crowd of mummies for all the noise
they made. We were finally marched to the Turkish cavalry barracks,
which, strangely enough, was the place from which our administrative work
would have been done if we had taken 'Baghdad. On arrival there we found
that the first contingent of officers had left two days before for the interior.
An Armenian had contracted with the authorities to feed us, and charged us
about 4s. tid. a day for our messing, whether we ate the food or not. He
gave us three meals a day. For breakfast we got buffalo milk, and eggs,
and one roll of bread ; for lunch rice, soup, and bread ; and the same for
dinner. Most officers, however, preferred to eat the stores we had brought
from the boxes given us at Shamran, and which our orderlies cooked for us.
The Turkish cooking was very dirty, and not at all palatable, with the
exception of the bread ; this, though sour, was cpiite eatable.
The walls, roof, and flooring of the barracks were of stone, and the
windows all barred. Some officers had smuggled cots through from Shamran,
but many had to sleep in their blankets on the stone flooring. The sanitary
conditions were awful, and the latrines were in a terrible state.
On the morning of 14th April all officers, both British and Indian, were
paid. Majors received 10 liras, Captains 8, First Lieutenants 7, and Second
Lieutenants 6 liras.
Here the Turks tried to start dissension between the British and Indian
officers. The latter were paid the same as British officers of corresponding
rank, a jemadar receiving 6 liras, a subadar 7, and a Subadar-Major
10 liras. The Mahommedans were allowed much more freedom than anyone
else. Only on the morning of 14th April the British officers were allowed in
the city of Baghdad under escort. Mahommedan native officers were allowed
to come and go as they liked. On the 15th April some of the officers started
a sing-song after dinner which the Turkish Commandant tried to stop. He
said we did not seem to realise that we were prisoners of war and saw
nothing for us to be cheerful about. However, we kept it up, and he retired
to his quarters in disgust. The following day we learnt that the kit
allowance would be only 30 pounds an officer. We were told that we should
go by rail to Samara and from there by horse to Mosul. A German officer
informed us that no baggage transportation had been supplied for the first
batch of officers and that they had thrown away all their kit at Samara
except what they could carry on their persons. The officers left at 4 p.m.,
but as I had dysentery I was sent to the Turkish officers’ hospital at the
Russian Consulate. I heard from Turkish officers there that in all proba
bility the different ranks of officers would be kept by themselves, Generals
in one place, Colonels in another, Majors and Captains in a third, and
Subalterns in a.fourth. Also, that they would probably be kept at Constan
tinople, Mosul, Aleppo, Smyrna, and Angora. In hospital I was very ill for a
long time, and it was over a month before I took any interest in things going
on around me. The English idea of a hospital is totally different from
anything I saw in Baghdad. In this hospital there were over 70 patients
and only one doctor and two assistants to look after them. There were
hospital orderlies, but all the} r did was to clean the wards and carry in the
food. About dressings and medicine they knew absolutely nothing. When
I was very ill from dysentery I had to get up out of bed and walk 100 yards
to the lavatory. The treatment I received for dysentery was an enema, of an
infusion of ipecac, every day and a strong dose of Epsom salts every week.
4he diet I received was milk and rice. All Turkish officers had their own
orderlies with them, but I was not allowed to have mine until I had been in
hospital over two months, and then I had to pay for his rations myself.
1 discovered that most of the patients were officers who had been wounded,
sent out as cured, and returned to hospital again. Sanitation was in a very
elementary condition and drugs and bandages at a minimum. The water
was given us just as it was drawn from the Tigris, without being boiled or
distilled in any way.
After two months I procured an orderly from the concentration camp for
British prisoners on the right bank of the river. He had marched up from