Hubert W. Peet

“ As, after lights out, I lay on the wide wooden unmattressed bed, beside some soldiers, good fellows—infinitely kindlier and more understanding than the warlike civilian—I was conscious of the awful weight of prison life on one’s soul and mind. Memory and contrast surged through my brain. There was the sense of the present albeit sleeping companionship instead of the loneliness of the cell. There was the recollection of the unrestrained talk and laughter during the evening in such contrast with the hurried, whispered word in prison. ”

“ Instead of the depression, there came into my mind that joy that had so continually been mine in prison; the experience that the isolation, driving one back upon oneself, had brought one into the presence of the Beyond-Oneself; the sense that God, and Good, and Beauty were one; the honour of being privileged to help stem the tide of an evil force. ”

“ I believe, therefore, I shall best spend my limited time in pigeon-holing mainly in subject and paragraph form, as completely as I can, an account of the ordinary life that I and my fellow C.O. prisoners have led, and shall again be leading by the time this will be read by you. [1] Thus, and thus only, can we best serve our dear ones, our country and humanity in the upward struggle towards that great Unity of life here and hereafter. ”