PREFACE

This little book relates my experiences as a prisoner of war in German East Africa.

In the writing of it and the casting into book form I have received invaluable assistance from one conversant with literary methods, but the substance remains a plain, unelaborated narrative of facts.

I have tried to avoid dwelling unduly on the privations, discomforts and insults endured, and considerations of space forbid more than a passing reference to the wretched state of the native population. But I do not hesitate to state my conviction that if East Africa ever again comes under German rule it will be a lamentable disaster for the native races. German rule in Africa is “the rule of the kiboko.” Kiboko is a word probably unknown to the majority of Englishmen ... it is but too well known to every native ... it means “the lash.”

E. C. H.