Page:Albert Beaumont - Heroic Story of the Czecho-Slovak Legions - 1919.djvu/42

 towards the Hungarians and Austrians. He gave us all our liberty from eight a. m. to eight p. m., and the officers and men wandered about the country as they liked. Fishing was their principal pastime, as they spent the greater part of their day on the banks of the streams and near the ponds, which abounded in fine fish and trout.

All went well till one day eleven Magyars took flight. An order then came from the Governor of Turkestan to keep us all confined to the camp. It was a terrible hardship to us, and quarrels soon became frequent between my men and the other prisoners. The Germans especially were very provoking. They called us Russophiles and incited the others against us. They threatened any Austrians who spoke to us. I searched the room of some German officers once, and found boxes full of reports against us Czechs. I destroyed their papers and warned them.

Malaria was prevalent in the camp: many men suffered from it, and some died. I also got it, and for months was too weak to stand on my legs. In the autumn typhus also broke out, and we had cases of scurvy. Our provisions became uneatable. The bread was fairly good, but black, and the meat and fish were generally bad.

During the winter I organised all the Czechs, and we joined in our subscriptions to the National Organisation which had been started in Petrograd. We got the Czecho-Slovak review of Dr. Pavlů from Petrograd regularly, and knew what was being done in other CzechoSlovak camps. The population of Samarkand, about 70,000 mostly Sarthians, resembling the Persians, were indifferent to us. We got permission to go to town rarely, and then we had to be accompanied by a Russian soldier with his rifle and bayonet. At the end of April, 1916, orders came for all the Czecho-Slovaks to be transferred to Tashkent. About 160 officers and 1,500 men were all that was left of us. We started for Tashkent with a glad heart, as we had begun to detest the camp at Samarkand, and did not want to spend another summer there.

My compatriots at Tashkent had continued to enjoy their freedom. Three camps were formed there for Magyars, Austrians, Poles, and Ruthenians, and a fourth exclusively for Czecho-Slovaks. But a Czech officer directed each camp, and I was placed at the head of the Czechs, who numbered about 2,000. We at once organised a political association, and I was elected president. Our men were lodged at the barracks of the 5th Russian Regiment, which was at the front, and we had plenty of time for study, exercises, and sport. The few men who did not want to join our political association for the independence of Bohemia were sent to the other camps. There were not many of them. They had