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Pris oner of Wa r , Internment Camps and Gibraltar Camp, Jamaica .

One Int e r nee letter s a ys : -

"Management and accommodation could not be bettere d . Provisions are plentiful and,
under the ci rcumstances, very good ."

Many months earlier a German seaman wrote in camp :-

"The odour of burning coal is always there"
At the e nd of Decembe r , a German b r ought to Jamaica from West Africa wrote : -

"As Ger man ship' s cooks work our kitchens , is the food more homely than in Ni geria ,
where there were no Eur opean vegetables at all ."

Interned s eamen in camp receive regular pocket money from German ship-owners via
the supe rvising neutral powers : t his p ayment always brings g reat joy. A seaman
writes : -

" Now that every interne e gets regula r money from Germany in British currency, we are
well provided with smokes and additional food" .

The non-seamen in camp are similarly supported, so long as they have no money of
their own . This applie s to many, b ut not all inter nees . Many s til l have suf ficient
means , whi ch t he y recei ve in small qua ntities . An internee write s : -

"There i s a sum of £40 f rom my property in Nigeria held here by the Custodian of
Enemy Property, and I have already received £2 .
The mood in camp is good, despite problems of civil internment, and this is mainly
due to t he careful l e adership of the German camp l e ader, Captain von Witte . This
can be s een from t he fol lowing line s : -

" Believe me , I would gladly s wap immediately with any German on European ground, be
his work ever so hard and dangerous . Monotony, enemy propaganda, total exclusdion
from the outside world, tropical cl imate and so much else , could bring down even
strong characters . But I can assure you that we a r e staying strong and will not bow
down .

The Wome n ' s Camp .
There exists a detailed report by the Supervisory Power about the Women' s Internment
Camp in Jamaica , which housed, almost exclusively, women and children from West
Africa . The camp is in the grounds of a former Deaconess House, cum school, in one
of the main streets of Kingston . The representat ive of the Supervisory Power had,
in genera l , in reason for complaint about accommodation and sanitary arrangements
for the internees . Howe ver, the outsi de area is too small , stony and dusty . Dr .
Haffmann organized a kindergarten f o r the chil dren, for which purpose the local
YMCA provided a conviently placed garden . The Supervisory Powers found in March
that most women had to supplement their provisioning by buying their own, and the
representative lodged a complaint . It is typical that , whereas the camp canteen
hadf butt er for sale, the camp kitchen was only provided with margarine . If the
German women, or their menfolk, do not have any means of their own, they are provided
wi th poc ket money by t he Supervisory Power . A considerable a mount has also been made
available by the Red Cr oss for the support of the women in Jamaica . German people
in neutral overseas a r eas also provi de generously for the camp internees .

Among the interned women there are three doctors and seven nursing sisters , so medical
Help in camp is assured . In serious cases and sick are taken to a hospital in
Kingston . There have been no deat h cases in camp , but several healthy children were