which figures form the basis for the subsistence of the prisoners of war during this month. In the table are also presented the figures for the previous survey in Ruhleben, and the figures for the past week of the civilian camp in Holzminden, where there are three British women and five Servians interned :

The prisoner-of-war ration is calculated for 300 grammes of bread, the same amount as assigned in Ruhleben and in Holzminden. The first Ruhleben entry (I) is that of the first report; the second Ruhleben entry (II) is that of last week; (a) and (b) are respectively the input per capita, for the total of men and for the number of men taking food.

These figures indicate that the food supplied by the authorities to the interned civilians in Ruhleben during the past week, if applied to all the men, represented less than half of the requisite food units. For the men who took food, less than two-thirds of the units were supplied by the authorities of the camp.

The authorities directly in charge of the subsistence of the camp are not following the official menu. When the diet of the interned civilians in Ruhleben was worked out, the sum of 66 pfennige per man per day was allotted for the purchase of foodstuffs, coal and costs of transportation being included. (The present figure for prisoners of war is 86 pfennige.) For some time the authorities in Ruhieben have not been permitted to expend this entire sum (amounting to about 2,600 M. per day), but only a certain fraction of it. The unexpended moneys have accumulated in the camp treasury, and this accumulation now represents a large sum. I am, of course, in no position to state what the saving has been, variously estimated between 60,000 and 200,000 M. It is, however, clear that if the authorities in Ruhleben were permitted to expend 2,600 M. per day for food (with or without the addition of the accumulated savings), the difference in the amount of food now supplied and once supplied would not exist.

A notable feature of the diet for the last week was the absence of vegetables. Rhubarb was served once, and no sugar was furnished with it, but instead the kitchen-men were instructed to employ saccharine for sweetening, and a determined amount of saccharine was supplied them for that pur pose. The kitchen-men followed their instructions, and the camp as a unit protested to the kitchen against the peculiar after-taste that following the eating of the rhubarb. It is my judgment that such manner of use of saccharine is entirely without justification. It is a truism in modern food laws the world over that the consumer should never be subjected to sophistication or substitution without his knowledge and consent. Prior to the war, the use of saccharine in foodstuffs was absolutely prohibited in Germany. If the authorities in Ruhleben are not able to furnish sugar with such foods as are normally prepared with sugar, the correct procedure would be to frankly notify the men to this effect, offer the individual men saccharine for their own use, if they choose to employ it, leave it to other men to furnish their own sugar if they wish, and not impose upon 3,000 men an artificial sweetening agent without their knowledge or consent.

During this period of time, while the authorities have been reducing the foodstuffs supplied to the camp, less and less food has been coming in from abroad, and this despite the fact that an increased number of packages came in during May as against April. During the month of April 28,908 packages were delivered to the camp; during the month of May 39,547 packages were delivered-the highest in the history of the camp, higher even than during December. It is estimated that 90 per cent. of these packages contained foodstuffs. This increase was due in part to a speeding-up in transportation, in part in response to appeals from the interned civilians. Despite this increase in number of. parcels, the amount of food received was reduced. During the past month a very notable deterioration in the quality of bread has been noticed; and in addition, week by week, a larger percentage has arrived in so mouldy a condition as to make it unfit for food. Furthermore, the number of loaves has been reduced. In the bread coming from Switzerland, a change in the quality was noted about Easter. This bread now comes in a very dried-out state, extremely hard, and on mastication it becomes gummy and stringy. The Swiss bread comes from the Société de Guerre ; it is paid for in England and comes addressed to individuals. In the month of April 5,560 bread parcels were received, containing each two leaves of 2 lb. each. The following figures illustrate the receipts during the weeks of Mav: 830, 1,700, 1,200, 1,200; total, 4.930. This falling off is due in large part to the fact that the Savoy Association has cancelled its

order for delivery from Berne. In April the estimated loss due to poor condition was 800 packages; in May the estimated loss has been almost one-half of the bread received.

The bread from England (which is in transit all the way from two to five weeks), has arrived in very poor condition owing to mould, 30 to 40 per cent. of it being unfit for food in April, while 80 per cent. of it was unfit for food in May. There are two English breads that always arrive in perfect condition, i.e., those of Barker and the Army and Navy Stores. Confronted with the shortage of bread, many men in the camp have attempted to use the K-bread; of these a goodly proportion report that they cannot continue its use on account of symptoms and signs of indigestion.

No relief is to be obtained from the canteen. The canteen no longer carries butter, sugar, or milk, and has practically no tinned meat of any kind. I inspected the canteen and found it to contain only a small supply of canned vegetables and some fresh vegetables. I am advised that the canteen has reached its present low ebb because the authorities at Ruhleben are not permitted to go on the open market to purchase foodstuffs; when they apply to the higher authorities they are informed that such foodstuffs are no longer available.

Under these circumstances the men have fallen back upon their stored supplies, and a number of men in the camp are at present living largely on food supplies from abroad that have been in their possession for weeks or even months. These accumulated supplies are now being rapidly reduced, when they are exhausted the men will face a critical situation.

I have attempted to determine the amount of food that comes in from abroad, but this is absolutely impossible except by stationing a number of men at the parcels delivery to open, count, and examine the contents of 10,000 packages during a week or more. There are now some twenty-five organisations sending packages of food into Ruhleben. Some of these organisations send to their members, others send to names that have been provided by friends, families, or organisations. Appended is a list of the associations that more or less regularly send parcels to Ruhleben.

At least one-half of the food parcels coming into the camp proceed from sources outside of the lists. About 2,000 names are upon these various lists, some of these 2,000 receive private packages from their own families. These packages, together with those sent to the remaining 1,200 men, who subsist largely upon private packages, make up at least half of the total number; 250 men are known to receive practically no aid whatever from the outside, and 500 more receive packages so rarely that the contents are of little material aid. It is, for example, common experience for a man to receive one package

a week or a fortnight containing not more than the food supply for one day.

About 1,600 of the British subjects draw relief funds. These men purchase in the canteen, or did when it contained anything they wished. They also purchase to some extent from other prisoners. As stated, not only is very little on sale in the canteen, but the prices are very high for unit food value.

In the camp is a group of some 300 or more men, who belong to a group at first termed "pro-German," but now termed "countryless ("heimatslos ""). These men were born in Germany, or have lived here since childhood; but since they were of British parentage they were technically regarded as of British citizenship, or at least not of German citizenship, though they are to a large extent German in interests and sympathies. Since these men are not upon the British relief lists, a special German relief was organised for their benefit some time ago. Through the instrumentality, and largely through the personal generosity, of Prince Max of Baden, a relief fund of considerable size was raised in order to relieve the needs of these men who are interned in the British civilian camp; 100 of these men receive regularly one or the other of the following packages each week :

1 lb. jam.

lb. sugar.

1 lb. sausage.

lb. condensed milk.

lb. cocoa.

lb. sardines.

lb. condensed milk.
3 lb. sugar.
80 grammes soap.

Though these men receive nothing else from the outside, it is interesting to note that their sugar ration (they also receive the regular camp sugar ration) is much larger than the legal ration now authorised in Germany. The 200 men not upon this German relief list received during the month of May about 2,000 packages of foodstuffs sent into the camp from friends, families, or associations in Germany. The contents of these packages, however, are low in food units, and, in particular, no meats are now being included in these 'packages.

A

The interned men are deeply dissatisfied with the present state of affairs. It has always been their understanding that it was the policy and the intention of the German Government to supply them with a physiologically adequate ration. review of the present ration of the prisoners of war indicates that it is the aim of the "Kriegsernährungsamt" to supply a ration which shall be physiologically adequate, though professedly containing little more than enough to cover minimal requirements; and it is believed that the official prisoners' ration contains as much as the daily food of many millions of German subjects. There is no question that the official prison

ration is an adequate ration from the standpoint of animal nutrition. In addition to this allotted camp ration the prisoners possess the foods sent in from abroad as addenda.

In the case of the Russian prisoners, these extra foodstuffs sent in from abroad are small in amount; in the case of the French, moderate; in the case of the English, large. In all the prison camps that I have visited it is the practice to prepare food for the number of men in the camp, irrespective of nationality, in accordance with the menu of Professor Backhaus. As a rule, the British prisoners take little or none of the food, and their share is eaten by prisoners of other nationalities. In Ruhleben, the state of affairs at present existing has convinced the interned civilians that the situation is, so to speak, reversed: that the German authorities seem to regard the foodstuffs sent in from abroad as the regular diet of the interned men, and the camp allotments as the addenda.

Viewed purely as a problem in feeding from the standpoint of the nutritional needs of the interned civilians in Ruhleben, it will be impossible objectively and scientifically to attempt a solution of the existing problem in the absence of definite information as to what the German and British Governments wish to do. If the German Government will state what sum of money it will expend and for what particular foodstuffs for the subsistence of the interned civilians in Ruhleben, this information could then be transmitted to the British Government and to the Relief Associations herein named, and also to the men themselves. With such information in hand, scientific and organised relief could be undertaken. If the British Government, the British Relief Associations, and the British interned civilians can be informed that the German Government is prepared to appropriate so-and-so much money, which will provide rations covering three-fourths or one-half or one-fourth, or any other proportion of the food-needs of the camp, it will then be possible for them to determine upon proper measures for the alleviation of the present conditions of confusion, dissatisfaction, and need. There is no question that half the men interned in Ruhleben are to-day not as well fed as are the British prisoners of war.

Appended is a list of the organisations now sending food into Ruhleben, with descriptive comments.

I have, &c.,

ALONZO ENGELHART TAYLOR.

* Not printed.