When we entered and were swung up to the Commander’s desk, with a few words of introduction, there was complete silence.

The soldiers who brought us in stepped back in a straight line, all in step, and waited to be congratulated, with that conscious air of work well done that a cat has when she throws down a mouse and stands around to hear the kind words which will be spoken.

The Supreme Commander was a grizzled man, with bushy gray eyebrows which were in great need of being barbered, red cheeks, and a curled-up mustache.  He spoke through an interpreter.

We were asked our names, ages, previous occupation, when captured, and the most important questions of all, “Why were we fighting against Germany?” and, “Why did we want to leave Germany?”

I was questioned first, and after I had answered all the minor questions, I told him I enlisted in the Canadian Army because we considered ourselves part of the British Empire, and besides, Great Britain’s share in the war was an honorable one which any man might well be proud to fight for.  I said we were fighting for the little nations and their right to live and govern themselves.  I told him it was the violation of Belgium that had set Canada on fire.

When this was passed on by the interpreter, I could see it was not well received, for the old man’s eyebrows worked up and down and he said something which sounded like “Onions.”

Then he asked me what did Canada hope to get out of the war?  I said, “Nothing”—­Canada would gain nothing—­but we had to maintain our self-respect, and we couldn’t have kept that if we had not fought.  “But,” I said, “the world will gain a great deal from the war, for it will gain the right to live at peace.”

At the mention of peace, some of the officers laughed in contempt, but at a glance from the Supreme Commander, the laugh was checked with great suddenness!

He then asked me why I wanted to get out of Germany.

I told him no free man enjoyed being a prisoner, and besides, I was needed in the army.

All these answers were taken down by two secretaries, and Bromley was put through the same list of questions.

He told them no one in Canada had to fight, no one wanted to fight, because we are peaceable people, but we believe a little nation had a right to live, and we had been taught that the strong must defend the weak.

When they asked him why he wanted to get away from Germany, he told them he had a wife and two children in Canada, and he wanted to see them:  whereupon the Commander broke out impatiently, “This is no time for a man to think of his wife and children!”

When the Supreme Commander was through with us, we were taken to the station and put on the train for Giessen, escorted by a Sergeant Major, who had an iron cross ribbon on his coat, and two privates.

We got a drink at a tap in the station and ate some bread and cheese from our pack, which they had not taken away from us, but they did not offer us anything to eat.