James Baily has a section in his notes devoted to an internee mistakenly interned in Knockaloe as a Turkish subject though in fact Egyptian and thus at the time a British subject. Being a very dark skinned young Negro with jet black curly hair he was given the name "Snowball". Paul Cohen in his book "Time Stood Still" was I think referring to the same man in the passage
Then there was an extremely black Negro whose presence remained a mystery until Charlie managed to solve it. He discovered that the man knew Arabic, and got him to explain. He had been arrested on board a ship, and when asked his nationality had replied that he was a faithful son of the Caliph. That was all he knew, for the notion of nationality was unknown to uneducated Mahometans. The Caliph was, of course, the Sultan of Turkey, so he was imprisoned as a Turkish enemy alien. As a matter of fact he was an Egyptian and therefore (at that time) a British subject. Charlie explained this to him and got very excited about his case, but not so the Negro ! He only shook his head and said he knew what he had got but not what he might get, and Allah had ordained things for the best
Charlie was Cohen's steward who had once been a valet to the Khedive of Egypt and after leaving the Egyptian monarch had been a steward on a large liner and like many Germans had been arrested onboard and eventually interned at Knockaloe. As Cohen and Charlie were both interned in Camp II it is likely that "Snowball" was too. It would however seem that Snowball, whose real name according to Baily was possibly Mohammed, had realised that he could be freed if only his Egyptian nationality could be accepted. He reports that the then commandant Col Panzera was impressed by the evidence and made representations to the Home Office on his behalf with the result the Home Office agreed to free him if a passage back to Egypt could be found.
It was at this juncture that Col Panzera asked Baily if the Society of Friends could help - Lady Courtney a member of the Friends Emergency Committee had a relative connected with one of the big shipping lines [?P & O] who could arrange such a passage if he signed on as crew from a boat leaving Liverpool. Col Panzera then asked if the Friends could kit him out in some respectable clothes - as Baily reports " he came over to us to be made presentable showing much exuberance of spirits while dressing and reiterations of grateful thanks".
There is I think another reference to Mohammed though in a much less accommodating form from Friedrich Nettel who refers to the presence of Negroes "who are neither our countrymen nor our allies".
Unfortunately it is very difficult to find any information about Turkish internees, real or mistaken, as it appears any such lists were sent to the Red Crescent rather than the I.C.R.C. [Red Cross]
J T Baily's papers Manx Museum 10417
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