S "true story" of an internment camp reaches the "New Statesman and Nation" from an "enemy aller' ho seems to know Lewis Carroll better than most Englishmen.
The skit in its original form contained many local allusions.
It should be explained that "letter-paper" is official note paper on which two letters a'week may be written, but that available, that a Streetfather is for some time no such paper was the elected representative of the inmates of a street of internees, that a Red Colonel is an inspecting Cólonel from the War Office wearing a red band, and that "runners" are young lads used as messengers by officers.
And Alice walked on through the mud until she came to the little gate. Near the gate there was a barbed wire, and behind the barbed wire there was another gate, behind the gate there was another barbed wire, and behind the wire there stood the Anglo-Saxon officer.
"Who are you?" asked the officer in a stern voice.
Why isn't your house blacked he asked the anxious House-
The Housefather wanted to say something about daylight and people coming in and out, but he was in-itemed and made a Streetfather as a punishment.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.