From the News

Dated: October 17, 1917

ESCAPED FROM HUNS
TIME FOR CHRISTMAS

Pte. H. H. McArthur of 48th Highlanders Hinted for Months at Intention.

In every letter for the last  five months Pte. Howard H. McArthur,¹ son of Rev. J. H. McArthur, Niagara-on-the-Lake, wrote that he would be home for Christmas and he looks like keeping his word, for he has just escaped to England from a prison camp in Germany, after two and a half years imprisonment.  In his last letter written on September 4th and received by his father on Saturday he told how well he was getting on with his music, remarking that he would be able to play for his father when he came home and adding significantly:  "And believe me it won't be long now."

For some reason or other the Germans evidently did not become wise to Pte. McArthur's intention nor did his father know what he was hinting at until he received a telegram from Ottawa announcing that his son had effected his escape.  No details are yet to hand as to how this was accomplished, but as Westphalia, a Province of Prussia, where Pte. McArthur was imprisoned, lies next to Holland, it is presumed that he got safely over the Dutch frontier into safety.

Pte. McArthur was only 18 years of age when he enlisted immediately after the outbreak of war with the 48th Highlanders, and went overseas with the 15th Battalion of the first contingent.  On April 24th, at the battle of St. Julien, he was taken a prisoner, suffering from the gas which the Germans had unloosed for the first time.   Later he was attacked by appendicitis.

For many months Pte. McArthur was at Dulmen, Westphalia, his only Canadian comrade being a former floorwalker of the T. Eaton Company, called Taylor.  The majority of the other prisoners were French.  They were employed on the building of houses.

Early this year Pte. McArthur was transferred to another Westphalian camp called Burchfarimord.  Here he worked on a railroad with an entirely different gang of prisoners.

Rev. Mr. McArthur told The Star today that the photograph which his son enclosed in his latest letter shows him to have aged about fifteen years in appearance.

Among the other men mentioned in the papers today as having escaped from Germany at the same time as Pte. McArthur are two other men who enlisted in Toronto, W. L. Master and John Evans, who both went overseas with the 4th C.M.R. and were captured at Zillebeke in June, 1916.