GOIN' TO THE CORNER The following is a copy of* letter recti ved by Island relatives from Pri vate H J. Wells , who. a* our reader* know, i* a prisoner of war. Hi it at present confined is * German prison CKtpp in Hannover ;— 3rd Canadian* iiamclk, 7637$ Hannover, tier Dear Id.» and Arthur I received letter from Ida jester day. I also received that casualty list By lbs wsy.who iiAR Mac Art bur ( is that uocle Elijah Boss ? Wall, the beautiful summer weath «r is here. Host I woo Id lov« to he ia a position to enjoy it The N.C.O .'e are goiog across to Holland in large parties. Almost all captured apto 1917 have goes.* Don't you admire t he way we privates are being treat¬ ed. In the first place the government made arrangements with the autho¬ rities here that all N.CO .'s would not be obliged to work while a pri- er. We had no complaint to make about that; bat when they agree to exchange them to Holland, and I am informed also lately refused to ex¬ change privates, men who are just as worthy of consideration and as in¬ telligent aa the Ji.CO.'e, I can asaure you some of them did not realize what .prison life was. But not so with us privates. He must do sx ectly aa ha la told and ha is one who knows the true meaning of those three words "Prisoner of War"; and we are quietly ignored; yes, I have seen man exchanged who ware forced to enlist on account of conscription, while we, who voluntarily cffered our services to our country in 1914 and have been over three years a prison¬ er, are paa*ed ovvr as so much dirt; not considered worihy of any help from our government. France i* exchanging all vmcere, H< J.O .*s and men over 18 months a prisoner. Surely England can do as much, cooiidtting that the British prisoners captured up to this year are only a handful compared with France. 1 am *h»%+ Judging from impressions one hears from every private soldier who Is a prisonM, that some of the next generation will net he vary well drilled in patriotism- Yea, yon bet yoar life I am sors^ Had anyone told mMbree years ago that should he served such a lousy trick I would have catted Mm a liar the spot. Ton can't Imagine the absolute hopelessness, of$ne*» ex¬ istence where we have spent three years behind barbed wire**. So we alt have causetdklc*. «rve my late to my friends. Affectionately, Hsrty Islander Has Belated Reunion JNetet The H, J, Wells of the fel lowing story & a Brother of Mrs , A L Ketmie and Mm John B, Gor¬ don of i&atsdala. 'They parted 2$ years ago, two Cars -adisn soldiers being led away to fa« ■•the hell which the Boche reserved for recaptured prisoners of the last war, 'Saturday was the great day of re- mnion when lieutenant U. W. Pace of •the home guard, Sault Ste. Marie, Otst,, walked to and shook hands with K. J. Wells , manager of the City market. In the next two days they filled in the gap of years as they told how each had fared after the Ger¬ man guards had caught them on the hank of the rfvwr Ems within sight of :f*eedom. That was in June, tU% They had -spent 12 days ia flight after escape from German:- prison camps, Hiding in She woods in the daytime and male ir.g- their furtive- way towards the ICetherianda border at night the pair had covered 150 miles before being ■-.:.,..-.. : :., men above, a public house near Bo* haite in the province oi Hunov.-r in M&y, 1917. Pace, then Privte Pace, vag lodged with another bunch of Frenchmen in an adjoining village We met on the work^angs,jmd plm ned an escape. I got hold of & pair of wire-cutters, a screw driver and a rope at a farm. At night I loosened the bars on the window of the third storey of the public house and got a- way without waking the guard in the next room. I met Pace at an appoint ex spot and we started out. »EB CROSS EBLPBD "The saved our lives. We carried with us the bwMybeef and hardtack, which had come to tie in pri n from the Bed Gross Society. We eked in the rains and froze in the old at night, but the food lasted for 0 days. The next two days and jghte we were without food. One ight we hung our clothes up to dry nd went to sleep in a bush. We wakened to And a group of German hlldren around us. They ran and ■>14 their parents ami a posse of Isr¬ aels chafed m hut we got away only a map to guide us and no sempass we made 150 miles towards louand until we came to the Ems I* was swift and cold, so we spent a night and day in hiding try¬ ing to figure a way to cross. There as nothing w*> couhld do but trust to luck and try the heavily-guarded bridge at night, It was no go. Th^ Evaxda caught us in the early morn- damp cell, -which had no wtatdewav The menu was black bread and-water and very little bread. Then I went ■to a stone quarry and later to a sug¬ ar factory. At the sugar factory I stoked two boilers 12 hours a day, stripped to the waist in withering haat. After wha* seemed years of this T was finally unable to walk ami' «ae sent to Switzerland on a sick pri setters exchange arrangement, two months before the Armistice. "In those days in I saw: prisoners- who had worked in the salt mines. They- were reduced to animr ate throng hardship and lack of food, their bodies covered with, running sores wh«re salt, in cuts and scrat¬ ches had festered.. CAUGHT ON BEIDGB "Pace thought he could swim it, bat I knew I couldn't. We had starv eJ for two days and I was pretty , weak. So wse decided to risk the bridge. They caught m as we neared the other aide, I never saw him a- gain from that day until this," saW Mr. Wells . Pace, a major in the N. P .,A,M.) reverted to the rank of lieu tenant when this war broke out in chr to get another crack at the Boche and the onetime prisoner is now guarding German prisoners. But let Mr. Wells tell the story of that hair raising experience of the ■Isst war. "I was captured when the Germans broke through for 800 yards to our rear in the .Second Battle of 'Ypres. A. Pecknold of Wetaskiwin and myself were the only two mm left alive in our section and we were both slightly gassed, All we had to combat that first use of gas by the ns was a peak cap and a Boss tine, "Then came Geisen and about six other German prison camps. Work a* all of them. Up to oar knees to icy mud, digging eanals, or pick and sbovsel work on roads. For weeks on end we never saw the camp to day- light. Owt on work gangs before and slaving1 until late at night, "SHOE ON OTHER FOOT" ".I often thought about Pace and wondered what they had done with h*m and whether he came through It alive. He had been sent to a stone quarry he tfol me yesterday. It cer¬ tainly mm gveat to see him again af¬ ter all these years, Back in uniform again and now the shoe is on the othar foot. He ia in charge of Ger¬ man prisoner* and they have a awieS time of it compared to what we suf¬ fered, lieutenant Pace knows aft the tricks and I'll bet none of the* pri sonars escape from hit custody.** Mr. Wells enlisted at Wetaskiwin la August, 1914, and went overseas with the Edmonton Fusiliers. He was transferred to the 8rd Regiment in January, 1915, and serv- Letter from An Island Boy The followiog letter has been re¬ ceived by Mrs.* John $ jlountain, of Alma, from her cousin, Pie. Freddie A. Home , now at Bramshotr, Eng¬ land. He wiajormerly in the Bank of Nova Scotia at Alberton and is a son ot the- late Mr- James Home, of Etrcadale ■- Dear Janetta :— Just'a few lines to let you know I am alive and well aod I sincerely hope that you and Jack and taby are in ffood health also. I have been transferred from the C-A. M.C. a* Brighton to the Young Soldiers Battalion here. I was sorry to have to leave Eobbie Home he hind, but I was with him for 10 months and of course £ cannot grum¬ ble. I had a nice letter from Henry in Nova Scotia and was most delighted to hear from him. Well Janetta, the two old homes of our have certainly changed in the last couple of year*. Poor Da and Uncle Mat. both dead, Henry and Ross away and myself away over here. I never drearapt of all this a few years ago when we were all growing up together but that is the way with the world, we cannot all be together al wave. I think this old war is soon going to end and we will all be back home again I did not like the idea of having to leave Bobbie for we were always to* gather in Brighton and he had such a nice little wife. . I used to he down to his house nearly every evening. Hqw is everything going up in lAlma ? We have a nice camp here, away back in the woe da, but we have to put up with these things in the army I hear from home quite often and always delight in getting the good sews., it brings back old memoriet >f the times when we were all to jether. Wei* Janetta, news is very.scarce lo I shall have to conclude for this time. Write me when you get an opportunity and tell me all the news. Your loving iCousin, Fred. Island Farmer, August 14,1918 Interview with H.J. Wells , 25 years later, (from Glennie Schofield 's scrapbook) Island Farmer, November 13,1918 534