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Prisoner of War , Internment Camps , and Gibraltar Camp , Jamaica .

The unexpected addition of prisoners also posed a further problem,
the distinction between civilian internees - basically the first
inmates of the Camp - and prisoners of war as such ; the distinction
was not always a clear cut one . The Central Powers , in common with
many continental countries , had conscription, even in peacetime, so
that many of their nationals were also reservists in their country's
armed forces. This was true of most, if not all , of the passengers
and crew on the "Bethanian, and later in the war these prisoners
were added to by the capture of members of armed German merchant
cruisers , many of the executive and engineering staffs of such
converted having stayed on board to serve the Kaisermarine .

Here the term prisoner or prisoners will be used generally to
denote members of the camp in either war, irrespective of their
status whilst the various parts of Up Park Camp are collectively
referred to as the "Campn , to dis tinguished it from the later
Woman's Interment Camp which is referred to as Hanover Camp . In
any even t during World War I , all groups of prisoner were treated
i n more or less the same way, a position different from that during
World War II .

During Wor ld War I there was no British infantry in the island
so during the early months guard duties at the Camp were carried
out by the 2 nd Battalion of t he West India Regiment . Later these
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duties were carried out by the 1 c Battalion of the same Regiment
and then by units of the then newly formed British West Indies
Regiment .

By 1916 many inmates of the Camp had been transferred to
Canada .

The Camp was conducted on a Brigade basis , and so far as the
postal arrangements were concerned the following regulations
applied to sending and receiving mail .

1 . Postage on all letters a nd cards was free , POW 2 below, being
applied by the Camp Orderly Room to inform the postal
authorities that free pos tage was a uthorized .
2. Mail from prisoners had to bear their name, with the name of
the Camp, as follows : -
Prisoner of War [name) , /Kingston, Jamaica , /
Brigade Office, Up Park Camp.

Guidance was also given as to the manner in which any answer
was to be addressed, as shown in handstamp POW 1 , applied by
the Orderly Room, which was most likely applied to an envelope
before it was handed to the prisoner. It was most likely
that this happened at this stage than at 3 below, as envelopes
handed out were recorded as prisoners were only allowed to
send a certain number within a specific period .
3 . Letters , in their unsealed envel opes , were handed into the
Orderly Room where they were censored and POWC 1 or POWC 2
applied . If not already done, appropriate wording denoting
free postage was added to the envelope , either by typing or