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the scars of the beating. They would then be sent to the camp hospital, where a kind Scottish doctor, Major Gray, would do his best to treat them...
'Dead of what? Disease, only attended to when too late. Those who succumbed to harsh treatment, beatings, poor nourishment, the climate and cold. I saw one tied to a tree and savagely beaten. He died. But why such harsh treatment? Because they were not allowed to leave camp to walk in the village. Also, there were problems with the [French] women. This has always been the same throughout history. Some managed to escape at night, for one night. And at dawn, instead of returning to camp, where they knew they would be beaten to death, they would rather hide in the fields, buried in haystacks, where they would be found, weeks later, dead of hunger and cold. After the war many skeletons were found when the camp was dismantled. Many preferred to bury themselves alive rather than to return to the "hell of Nolette." They were buried like animals, standing up, especially at first. Often their heads could be seen. It was only later that gravestones were arranged and maintained properly to erase the awful memories and so that the public could be kept in blissful ignorance of what really happened.'
Monsieur Réveillon recounts: 'In 1917 I was 13 years old. Nobody by then paid any attention to French or English soldiers. But the whole population assisted on the arrival of these "Little Yellow Men" with complete bewilderment. They were odd, with their plait down the back, their padded blue sleeveless clothes, puffed-up trousers and slippers of the same material, which did not appear to have a sole and on which they walked silently.'
‘On arrival, the Chinese were directed to the Camp located on sides of the road to Sailly. They live here, slightly in retreat where they have built a pagoda to pray. Only 2 street sweepers, always the same two, have contact with the villagers. Silently, they warm themselves in Mr Réveillon's father's forge. Other workers clean the stables where the English keep their horses. A bamboo stick in one hand, a basket in the other, they remove the manure. They also visit the shopkeeper, who is not always honest and sell them outdated stock hats, belts - at sometimes inflated prices. Apart from these rare contacts, the villagers did not approach the Chinese whose smile, they thought,
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