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HTML Transcription © F.Coakley , 2021
The following note was from the Colonial Office to the Foreign Office
29th August, 1916.
Sir,
With reference to your letter (No. 7965/1916 P) of January 15th, I am directed by Mr. Secretary Bonar Law to transmit to you, for the information of Lord Grey of Fallodon, copies of correspondence with the Governments of Nigeria and the Gold Coast on the subject of the complaints of Herr P.W. Bringer regarding the treatment of the German prisoners of war during their voyage from West Africa to England in the S.S. "Akassa" in November and December 1914,2. As Herr Bringer's statement was forwarded to this Department in original, a copy of it is enclosed for reference.
Downing Street, 18th February 1916.
Sir .
I have the honour to transmit to you a copy of a statement, received By the Foreign Office through the United States Ambassador, regarding the accomodation and treatment of the Germans sent to England in the S.S, "Akassa" towards the end of 1914.
2.The statement, which appears to have been drawn up and sent to the United States Embassy by Mr. P.W.Bringer, is not signed; but it states that a number of the prisoners of war in the same camp, whose names are given, are able and willing to confirm on oath that it is "substantially correct", I think therefore that it is desirable that you should obtain the observations of such of the Nigerian Government Gold Coast officers as were acquainted with the actual facts of (the fitting up of the ship and) the treatment of the prisoners and others on board, as was done in the case of the S.S. "Obuassi",:
3. I am sending a similar despatch to the Governer of the Gold Coast, Governor-General of Nigeria as the vessel was fitted up for the voyage by the Nigerian Marine Department, Lieutenant Commander G.C. Heathcote R.N. of the Gold Coast was in charge of the prisoner of war on the voyage, and his comments on the complaints regarding the treatmentof the prisoners of war will no doubt be obtained
4. The report which Lieutenant Commander Heathcote made on the voyage at the time was communicated to you under cover of my predecesor's despatch No 99/50 of the 25th of January, 1915.
I have, etc., (sgd A Bonar Law)
I've not yet found the reports returned from Nigeria and the Gold Coast probably contained within CO files
Transportation of Civilian Germans and Austrians from Nigeria, Dahomey, Togoland and the Gold Coast to England on board of S.S."Akassa", which left Lagos on 18th November and arrived at Liverpool on 21st December 1914.
The German and Austrian Subjects in Lagos, Nigeria including some who had been sent from Dahomey to Nigeria by the French Government, were all arrested on 8th August 1914, and put in the Native Criminal Prison in Lagos. They were searched by the native Prison Officials and kept locked up during the night (6. p.m. to 6 a.m.) in single cells, used before for the condemned Negro criminals, No beds, matresses or mosquito net were provided. Some planks and 2 Prison blankets each had to do as furniture. Table gear and food were not supplied until the 2 day. On the first day only some dry biscuits and Trade sardines were issued by some of the condemned criminals under the supervision of black warders. The food was handed out by the criminals with their dirty hands without any tablegear.
After some days the majority was released on parole. No fighting had taken place in Nigeria. No resistance whatever has been offered by the Germans and Austrians in Nigeria. All orders of the Provost Marshall were promptly obeyed,
The Germans and Austrians concerned were all Civilian Merchants mostly. A good number of them were not even liable to military service. However they were several times collected, rushed to several places in the interior, then brought back to Lagos and allowed out on parole and eventually against the end of October all were collected again in the Ibadan Camp, interned and told they would be brought out of the Colony, they were unable to get information, to what place they were to be brought or even, if they would go to a place in a tropical or in a cold climate.
The heads of the firms were allowed a short time, to hand over their businesses to the Official Receiver appointed by the Government to take over all enemy concerns. The managers of branch-establishments generally had no notice given to them but to hand over all property at a moment's notice. The time allowed to the heads of firms even was too short to take stock or allow other but the most superficial steps to be taken. The Receiver demanded, that all business papers, title deeds a.s.o. should be put into his hands,
It was impossible to find out from the Authorities, what luggage they would allow to be taken, or in what manner the transport was to be effected.
The German and Austrian subjects collected in Ibaden camp were then sent down to Lagos and shipped in the S.S,"Akassa" a Cargo steamer of Elder Dempster and Company, with a limited accommodation for passengers, which however the "War prisoners" were not allowed to use. All "War prisoners" were put into the cargo holds of the SS "Akassa", about 140 in the forehold, a similar number aft. The Prisoners were not allowed to look after their luggage during the transshipment from Lagos to the steamer, outside in the roadstead, but were told, that it would be looked after.
The luggage was transported out by a branchboat of Elder Dempster and Company and when it was received on board of S.S. "Akassa" it was found out that a great quantity of it (estimated at about £1000) was missing. It appeared that during the operation of transhipping it had been pilfered and a great quantity of Valuables, money, wearing apparel a.s.o. had been robbed. Most of the trunk had been forced open. We saw a number of trunks in the sea, which had apparently had been thrown overboard by the crew of the branchboat. When taking on board the luggage, the officers in charge of the transshipment had a number of matresses, which the prisoners had brought with them, thrown back into the Branchboat or tender,
The attention of the Officer in charge of the Transport, at that time Mr. Montagu, was drawn to the state of the luggage and a list of part of the missing things, as far as it could be made out in the hurry, was handed to him, when the branchboat was still near S.S. "Akesaa" it was suggested, that the branchboat should be searched for the missing articles, but this was refused. Nothing has been seen so far of the missing articles and money.
The Prisoners were accomodated in the fore and aft cargo holds of the S.S. "Akassa". Rough bunks had been fixed up in Lagos. They were so close together, that it was difficult to move between. The hold had only a few small portholes (six in the whole forehold) and no proper ventilation. There was only one electrical light on each of the two entrances and the greatest part of the room was in semi darkness even in daytime. There was consequently no possibility of proper cleanliness. Instead of matresses were issued a kind of mats made by natives from bundles of grass tied together and as hard as boards. Even of these there were not sufiicient for all
The deck of S.S."Akassa" being of iron, thickly coated with rust, it was unbearably hot below, as long as we were in the tropics and got very cold, when we got into cold climates. No heating apparatus was provided. The forward hold was contiguous to the reserve bunkers and the partition being badly made, we get through it a lot of coaldust. The rust adhering to the feet of people walking on the iron deck was spread of course in the hold there was no possibility of getting rid of it again. The Prisoners had no access to the Promenade deck and had to share the lowerdeck fore and aft with the native Negro crew.
The latrine was built out over that side of the ship, which was constantly exposed to the strong breeze. It consisted of a flimsy construction of beams and thin ironsheets and inside a plank with 6 holes. When the breeze was only moderate, it was already impossible to use it with decency. The Urine was blown back in the shape of spray if a man was urinating and even the excrements were blown back through the next hole and it was consequently impossible, to keep the place fit for a human being to use it. It got worse when the weather got rough and the flimsy structure was blown more and more to pieces. It got even so dangerous in rough weather in the Bay of Biscay, that one of the Officers of the guard told us not to use it, but when we asked him what we were going to do he said nothing. It was then necessary to sit on the plain deck and use that as W.C. as there was positively no other place to go to. The Deck and the Latrine were open later on, when the Latrine had been partly destroyed by the weather in view from the Promenade deck where some ladies wore supposed to take their exercise. The Officer in charge of the transport, Captain Heathcote R.N. did nothing to improve matters in spite of our entreaties,
Our rations were not sufficient and such people, as had not the money with them or no occasion to buy extra food, were always suffering from hunger. The ration did not contain any fat, nor any jam nor any vegetables or fruit except yams. We received the rations uncooked and were told to cook them ourselves. The arrangement for cooking was however so miserable that it was scarcely possible to prepare the food decently. The Kitchen was an open shed of corrugated sheets on deck containing two ranges, which however were not properly fixed to the deck and collapsed, when the weather got bad.
For the forward hold containing 140 people we were given 6 Aluminium pots of a capacity of 1/2 gallon each and 4 waterkettles of the same capacity. As it was obviously impossible to get food for 140 people ready with this gear, we had to bribe the ships crew to allow us the use of two old Engine-Oil-drums and with this we had to shift the whole time. The Kitchen was built in such a position, that the used Toilette-paper was mostly blown by the breeze into the shed and often into the pots. (Moreover it was flying all over the deck). No gear was provided for the cleaning of table apparel. We received instead of bread mostly hardbake containing a liberal dosis of weavils and worms. The flour was given to us in barrels and we were told to bake it ourselves, but as we had no oven, we had to bribe the shipspeople to let us use theirs and this cost us a good amount of money and inconvenience.
The supply of water was extremely limited. We were supposed to receive 1/2 gallon per day per man for washing, drinking cooking and cleaning up our tablegear and making tea. The water forward was to be taken out of a tank, into which apparently the exhaust from the ships engines emptied, anyhow the water was mostly hot and the tank must have had a thick accumulation of dirt and rust, as the water was of the consistency of peasoup and the colour of chocolate. The misery of a voyage of about 20 days in the tropics under iron decks and protected from the sun only by a thin awning without sufficient water to quench the thirst, with no fresh water to wash, and mostly not even sea water to bathe was considerable.
We begged the Commandant oftem, to improve our water supply, we suggested, that the tank might be once cleaned of its accumlation of rust and dirt, when it would have provided us with at least tolerably clean water, we offered to do the cleaning of the tank ourselves as there were ships engineers amongst us, who volunteered to do this, but all in vain.
There was no provision made for people who fell ill, We had a number of cases of black water fever and other illnesses and even in the worst cases the patients were left in their bunks in the hold.
There were no medicines apparently except Quinine and the purge, no comforts for those, who were unable to eat the rations and though the Medical Officer on board came everyday into the holds, he could help very little, as he had no appliances, no medicines, no hospital. When some of the patients were apparently in extremis, we begged that the German nurses (sisters of RedCross) from Lome, who were on board, might be allowed to look after the patients now and then or to give us instructions, what to do in the way of treatment, but we were refused. The Officer in charge of the Transport, Captain Heathcote R.N. did nothing to alleviate our miseries but appeared even to enjoy putting us into more discomfort, than necessary even under the circumstances set forth before. The guard treated us in a very rough manner carefully calculated to humiliate us as much as possible through the particular circumstances, that here we were Europeans of mostly good social standing and how under them, the Riff Raff of the Coast- towns of course all Negroes.
A gentleman from Lagos, Mr. Haensel, had been brought on board together with his wife, His wife was in the Saloon deck, while he like the husbands of the other german ladies on board, with us in the hold. He was not aware, that conversation with the ladies was forbidden and chatted with his wife through one of the portholes, One of the sentries, a Negro, who stood near started to swear at him in extremely disgusting expressions calling him there in the presence of his wife a "focky bloody swine" a.s.o. Complaint was nade to the Officer in Charge but the sentry was not punished, and the Speaker of the Prisoners of War in the forehold Mr P.W. Brunger, who complained to Captain Heathcote against the incident just related and against the state of the water and the treatment of the people who were ill, was told that his behaviour in bringing the complaints was "extraordinary" and was put for three days into the guardroom together with the Negro soldiers as a Punishment.
A particular hardship was suffered by the prisoners kept in the afthold, as the hold underneath that in which they were living was filled with Palm kernels in Bulk, a cargo which gives off a most noxious and offensive smell and moreover produces a considerable heat.
Another particular complaint is that a number of partly rather valuable photographic apparatus and cameras and field glasses have been taken away from the P/W without a receipt being given.S.S.Akassa arrived in Liverpool on 21st December 1914 and was seen on arrival by the American Consul. It appears that even the British Officer who took over the "Prisoners of War" in Liverpool (Major Firminger, II Commander of Handforth) expressed his disgust at seeing educated people of social standing transported in such filthy and such miserable conditions
The following persons of this camp are able and willing to confirm on oath, that this report is substantially correct: many more witnesses are in other camps on the Isle of Man
[long list of names of internees in the South camp at Lofthouse Park Wakefield]
1 Akassa was a long established trading post of the Royal Niger Company on the southernmost tip of Nigeria.
FO 383/163
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