The commander of this civilian camp of Ruhleben was a very handsome
old gentleman, named Count Schwerin. His second in command for
a long time was a Baron Taube. Both of these officers had been
long retired from the army and were given these prison commands
at the commencement of the war. Both of them were naturally
kind-hearted but curiously sensitive and not always of even temper.
On the whole I think that they sympathised with the prisoners
and did their best to obtain a bettering of the conditions of
their confinement. The prisoners organised themselves in their
various barracks, each barrack having a captain of the barrack,
the captains electing one of their number as a camp captain or
_Obmann_.
The man who finally appeared as head man of the camp was an
ex-cinematograph proprietor, named Powell. In my mind he, assisted
by Beaumont and other captains, conducted the affairs of the camp
as well as possible, given the difficulty of dealing with the
prisoners on one hand and the prison authorities on the other
hand. Naturally he was always subject to opposition from many
prisoners, among whom those of aristocratic tendencies objected
to being under the control of one not of the highest caste in
Great Britain; and there were others who either envied him his
authority or desired his place.
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