The German authorities told me
afterwards that if they had known I was going to make this visit
they would not have permitted it, but on this occasion the corps
commander system worked for me. Accompanied by an adjutant, in
peace times a local lawyer from the corps commander's office in
Magdeburg, and other officers, I visited these British officers
in their cells in the common jail at Magdeburg. They were in
absolutely solitary confinement, each in a small cell about eleven
feet long and four feet wide. Some cells were a little larger,
and the prisoners were allowed only one hour's exercise a day in
the courtyard of the prison. The food given them was not bad, but
the close confinement was very trying, especially to Lieutenant
Goschen, son of the former Ambassador to Germany, who had been
wounded and in the hospital at Douai. Among them I found an old
acquaintance, Captain Robin Grey, who had been often in New York.
The German authorities agreed to correct several minor matters of
which the officers complained and then we went to the neighbouring
town of Burg, where other officers were confined in the same manner
and under similar conditions in the ordinary jail.
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