1 FEBRUARY 1919, Page 23

Two Years' Captivity in German East Africa. By Surgeon E.

C. Holtom, R.N. (Hutchinson. Os. 9d. net.)—When our warships bombarded Dar es Salaam in November, 1014, the author was sent to examine what purported to be a hospital ship. Through some mistake, the ships sailed away without him, and the enemy detained him as a prisoner, in defiance of the Geneva Convention. He spent two years in captivity, making long journeys from one prison to another. His gaolers were offensive, but on the whole less inhuman to the Allied prisoners than many of the camp commandants in Germany. Their ill-treatment of the natives was, however, abominable. German rule in Africa was, he says concisely, " the rule of the kibokO " or hide whip.