大象传媒

Continuation of report written by George Whalley

Complete lack of organisation in all dealings with the internees was very apparent when we were put on the train at Conakry for our new camp. Food for the day was to have been put on the train before it left the station, but it did not arrive in time. Some little distance out of Conakry, however, the train was held up and the police van brought us some tins of corned beef but no bread or coffee, etc. We had had nothing to eat or drink before we set off and when noon came we had half a tin of corned beef each without anything else but a drink of water. We were to stop overnight at a town called Malmou and here we were taken out of our uncomfortable third class railway carriage and locked in banana vans for the night. Mats had been spread on the floor of the vans but we were so crowded and as there was no ventilation sleep was extremely difficult. Before settling down for the night we were given a minute portion of "hot-pot" each and about half a cupful of soup. At six the next morning we boarded our train again and spent another tiring day travelling. On this portion of the journey the scenery was magnificent but we were in no mood to appreciate it owing to the discomfort of the hard narrow wooden seats and the fact that sparks were constantly flying in through the windows from the engine, causing great damage to our clothing by burning holes in our shirts and shorts. Our lunch on this second day consisted of one tin of sardines between three men - 1戮 sardines each - without any bread or anything to drink except water.

The evening of the second day on the train brought us to Kan Kan, the railhead, and there we were provided with a good meal and the officers were given a first class railway coach to sleep in and the men had comfortable beds in goods vans. From Kan Kan we spent two most tiring days in lorries to Bamako and as these lorries offered no protection from the fierce sun we suffered great discomfort. After three days rest in Bamako, where we were well looked after and lodged in a technical school with good beds, showers, etc., we were put on the train for Koulikoro, the scene of my first internment. We did not stop at Koulikoro, however, but embarked on a barge alongside a river steamer for the passage to Timbuctoo, which took us nearly five days. Mattresses had been placed along the bottom of the barge for us to sleep on and we were quite comfortable except for the fact that there was absolutely no privacy for washing, etc. The food for this passage was supplied from the steamer and was reasonably good. We suffered great discomfort from mosquitoes at night time and during the day the heat was intense. The barge was covered with matting to provide shade from the sun and the mosquitoes lodged in the matting during the daytime. The river Niger between Koulikoro and Kabara, the port for Timbuctoo, was infested with crocodiles and as there was only a ledge of about one foot wide around the barge for us to move about upon, and upon which we had to bathe and do our washing, we were in constant fear that someone would fall into the river and be snatched by a crocodile. I might mention in passing that one of our black guards did actually fall into the river, but this did not cause the internees any great concern, rather a distraction. We arrived at Kabara and disembarked on the morning of the fifth day, a record run for this journey. After leaving Koulikoro the face of the countryside changed from fertile land to arid desert except in the immediate vicinity of the river banks, which were cultivated. The distance from Kabara to Timbuctoo was five miles and for this march the internees were provided with an escort of 30 soldiers who carried rifles, bayonets and sub-machine guns. During the march these soldiers carried out manoeuvres, dodging from bush to bush and disappearing, later to emerge or reappear in the most unexpected manner. Owing to our low spirits the humour of the situation was lost upon us at the time and had our guards realised how innocuous a party we were they might have spared themselves this fatigue on a hot day.

The building in which we were to spend many months of complete boredom at Timbuctoo was the Rest House for Travellers and we found that it consisted of a large mud-brick building on the biblical style with walls about three feet thick and a large flat roof. A veranda ran all round the building and there were eight rooms which took three men comfortably in each. Good beds were provided, together with a washbasin in each room and a table on which to stand this basin. Boxes had been put up on the walls to provide shelves and usually there was one box per man. Meals were taken on the veranda where trestle tables were provided, the officers eating at one end of the building and the men at the other. The food was cooked by a native cook and two boys were provided to keep the building generally tidy and assist the cook. There were two shower baths, which one had to fill with a bucket of water, and the sanitary arrangements were quite good compared with those at Conakry. Around the building ran a wall varying in height from 8 to 10 feet and except from the back of the building it was impossible to see over this wall without going on to the flat roof. Although the area enclosed by this wall was fairly large the ground was of soft sand and was very difficult to walk upon and very tiring. We arrived at Timbuctoo early in October and at that time the weather is extremely hot but towards the end of the year the temperature drops considerably so that by Xmas we were spending most of our time in bed keeping warm. At this time we found it necessary to attend the table with our blankets wrapped around us. Our diet consisted of rice, macaroni, bread and cous cous. This latter is a form of grain which grows locally near the river. It has the colour of brown sugar and when set on the table looks like a heap of sawdust to which it bears a strong similarity in flavour. It was usual to put several large spoonfuls on a soup plate and then pour in some gravy, which was the watery liquid made from the bones of the day's meat. The meat in Timbuctoo is nearly always mutton from a particularly gristly and fleshless form of sheep which grazes on the stunted semi-cactus bushes which are the only form of vegetation in that part of the world. In our camp we usually seemed to get the ribs of the beast and the proportion of bone to meat was extremely high. Owing to the great heat in the daytime during most of the year the animals are slaughtered in the mornings for the same day's consumption, and it is possible that this also contributed to the toughness of the little flesh which we received. Frequently we had a first course for lunch and this would consist of a piece of liver or kidney about the size of a two shilling piece. Actually, our official ration of meat and bread was 300 grammes per day, but owing to the type of meat provided this was quite inadequate by the time the bones and gristle were rejected. Sometimes the first course for lunch would consist of tripe. This tripe was sent into the camp raw during the morning and the cook would have to clean it before giving it about 10 minutes in the frying pan before serving. As tripe takes something like 10 hours to cook properly you will realise the futility of 10 minutes in the frying pan.

It will be recalled that when the internees left Dakar for Koulikoro during my first detention two men were left in hospital at Dakar suffering from broken legs. These men arrived at our camp in Timbuctoo about Xmas although the rest of their crew had been released with me the previous day. As these men had recently come from Dakar they were in a position to tell us the latest news from there. The American Consul had told them that all exchanges of prisoners had been stopped because of a broadcast made by one of the party released in May. The secrecy which was maintained when we were released then had thus been violated and the French Government at Vichy had been asked by the Nazi Armistice Commission to explain. The result was that the French stopped any further repatriation for a considerable time.

With the new year came the crops of local vegetables and potatoes figured greatly in our menu. Tomatoes were also plentiful at this time, together with parsnips, carrots and lettuce. These vegetables are only available for the first two months of the year and for the remaining ten months there are no greenstuff grown locally. All the internees developed symptoms such as receding gums which denote the lack of greenstuffs, and I believe that scurvy is a very common complaint among the native population. From Timbuctoo we were allowed to write home each week but we had to keep these letters short. As we were completely isolated from contact with civilians we were unable to buy writing materials in the town and had to rely upon occasional supplies handed out by the authorities. The supply was quite inadequate for even one letter per week. The native boys who worked about the camp were absolutely forbidden to bring us anything in from the stalls, even though we were prepared to pay. For months we were rationed to 20 cigarettes per week. The Commandant told us that cigarettes were scarce in Timbuctoo, as was everything else, and that owing to our British blockade that was all that Frenchmen were allowed to buy in France. He even told us that he himself was limited to that number of cigarettes but the sergeants who came each evening to take charge of the camp for the following 24 hours could smoke 30 or 40 cigarettes per day before our very eyes. Many of these sergeants were very decent fellows and were quite sympathetic towards us. Some of them gave us occasional packets of cigarettes out of their own pockets and might have done a great deal more to ease our lot had not the Commandant been such a strong disciplinarian that they would have got into serious trouble had they been found out.

It was at the end of February 1942 that we received our first allowance of money from the American Consul at Dakar, seven months after we had been captured. This was partly due to the fact that it generally took three and one half months to write to Dakar and obtain a reply. From the end of February until July the river steamers on the Niger cease operating owing to lack of water, and during this time the only means of communication between Timbuctoo and Bamako is by means of native canoes poled upstream against the current, or by lorry which necessitates a journey of three days in the opposite direction to Gao and then a week by road to Bamako along the other bank of the river, where trains connect with Dakar. It was at the end of February that we received our first parcels from the Red Cross, sent from Bathurst. These were two parcels slightly larger than the individual food parcels sent to all prisoners of war and contained tinned food, fifty cigarettes, cards, and four mosquito nets. These parcels had come by either one or the other of the two routes just mentioned, and although their contents were quite inadequate they were much appreciated and their arrival caused great excitement in the camp.

The Indian with the broken leg who arrived at Xmas time was during February suffering great pain and swelling of his leg and it was decided to send him to Bamako to hospital. There was a hospital quite close to the camp at Timbuctoo but there they were greatly handicapped by lack of medicaments and X-ray plant. If it was necessary to operate upon a European at Timbuctoo, a telegram had to be despatched to Bamako for a surgeon who then flew the five hundred miles to Timbuctoo. We heard later that this Indian was several months in hospital at Bamako and was released during the summer. About March the camp was visited by a General of the French Army and the hospital doctor brought to his notice the cases of several internees whom he considered should be repatriated owing to constant ill-health. I was one of the internees mentioned. Later, it was decided that these men should be sent to Bamako hospital for further examination and possible repatriation. As, however, the river steamers had ceased running for the season we were told that we would be sent to Bamako on the first steamer to run, which would be about the end of June.

Early in March our Captain and one of the men escaped from the camp with the intention of walking the 600 miles to British Nigeria. They were at liberty for almost three days before they were picked up by natives some eighty miles from Timbuctoo and returned to the camp. Immediately their escape was discovered rules were tightened up in the camp and we lost several privileges which it had taken us months to gain. Amongst these privileges were permission to go for an hour's walk each morning under guard, and also the receipt of the daily war communiques which were received at the military wireless station and circulated amongst the Europeans. All doors and shutters were fitted with bolts and we were locked in our rooms during the afternoon and for the whole night from eight o'clock onwards. As the heat at this time was very great our discomfort was acute. At about hourly intervals during the night the sergeant of the guard would open each door and count us in our beds; this meant that we were awakened by his lamp and the rattling of bolts. Frequent roll-calls were also made and it was quite a regular event to be called out of bed in the very early hours of the morning to line up and answer our names because a particularly officious native adjutant was visiting the camp. It was about the middle of April before this locking-in rule was relaxed, and then it was only done because of complaints by the medical service who maintained that this form of punishment was deleterious to our health. In the middle of April we received our first parcel from home and our second batch of letters, the first letters having arrived in January.

Early in May a number of men arrived at the camp from a vessel called the ALLENDE. These men had been torpedoed and had landed on the Ivory coast. They had spent almost a month in travelling to Timbuctoo by means of train, road, and native canoe on the Niger. They had had a fortnight on the river in these canoes and were in a sorry state when they arrived. Close to our building was another newly erected rest house, and on the arrival of this second crew Officers and Men were separated, each occupying one of these buildings. The other arrangements remained essentially the same. Two of the crew of the ALLENDE died during the two months that they were at Timbuctoo. They were buried with due ceremony in the local European cemetery and stones were erected over their graves. Another member of the ALLENDE crew was suffering with a fistula and it was considered expedient to dispatch him to Bamako hospital. As the river was in a low state he had to travel in a small craft, poled upstream, and it took him four weeks to reach his destination. His sufferings during this journey can be well imagined.

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