Another interesting affair, wae an after-dinner gathering at one of the clubs to hear Captain Gwatkir Williams, p.n., give a personal account of his adventures during the ar when, after his little boat, the "Tara," had been submarined he and 93 survivors made the shore only to find themselves captured by Turks who immediately handed them over to the Senussi tribe which larched them to captivity into the Libyan Desert there to be kept as prisoners until "the end of the war'... It was then 1915!
Captain Williams told of a forced raarch into the desert made on a daily decreasing allowance of rice. of long months of existence wher they supplemented the scanty fare with large white snails until the desert had been cleared of such edibles for a ten-mile radius and the prisoners were too weak to struggle, further afield. Then, one day, a camel was discovered dead in the well, Captain Williams went down after it, located a hairy foot. and reped the animal. It was hauled te the surface and a cheering crowd pressed about it. Room was made for the ship's butcher and he ap-Proached to hack off joints... Alas, the camel'had been dead a week! With many a curse a hole wag scraped in the desert and the unwieldy animal buried. But all night long the 93 dreamed of camel steak and next morning they dug the camel up again and ate it.
The next excitement was Christmas-and to celebrate the day each man for weeks before saved what ko could of his precious rations, from Ib. of rice: even an ounce sived makes an appreciable differ-cree. Still, they managed something and on Christmas morning the resulting savings were put together and each man had a good two lb. weight of dough made from rice and flour all at once. It was a great day. Perhaps such a fine meal was stimulating, for shortly after Christmas Captair Williams made an attempt to escape, reckoning that if he could go as the crow flies, he could cover the distance in a 95 mile tramp. He walked by night, to avoid the far-sighted eyes of the Senussi, but on the third day fell into the fands of a new tribe. However. the promise of a bag of gold had its effect on two Turkish soldiers who happened to be in the camp and they accompanied him on his way, but at the end, the trio fell into the hands of Captain Williams"
inal Turkish captor, who sent him back into the desert! And so more weeks past and the prisoners ow weaker and more ragged, having for the renewal of the clothing of 99 men two empty rice bags 2 week?
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.