ROUGH TIME IN THE ENEMY'S COUNTRY

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2489, 16 June 1915, Page 3

ROUGH TIME IN THE ENEMY'S COUNTRY

Three Belgian non-commissioned officers who were taken prisoner at Antwerp when that city fell into the hands of the Germans in October, have arrived in England, after escaping from a military prison at Bergenhuson, in Schles-wig-Holstein. The first two months of thoir captiivty were spent in a .concentration camp at Parchim. In the course of an interview with a representative of the London "Morning Post," they made the following references to the prison conditions in that camp: — "We had many companions in misfortune, among them about sixty British prisoners. We did not have on opportunity of conversing with these British prisoners, as we do not speak English and we do not know their names. Some of them belonged to the West Yorkshire Regiment. They had had everything taken from them, except their trousers, their .boots, their caps, and their tunics. Their distinctive badges liad also been removed, but some liad written 'W. Yorkshire in blue pencil on their caps- It was at Parchim that we first realised what it is like to be in the power of the brutal and tyrannical German. A Frenchman who was not a prisoner of war like-us, but an interned civilian, had his brains beaten out with the butt-end of a rifle by a sentry because, being driven frantic bv hunger, he went to the kitchen and begged a basin of soup. The .next day a mock inquiry took place, and it was put on record that he liad died of an eneurism, although everyone knew it was not true. On another occasion a French soldier was severely wounded by a bayonet thrust for the same offence, and had to be placed in '.ho hospital.. But the worst sufferers aie the British, although the Russians, too, come very badly off. The condition of the -British prisoners is truly pitiable. Their gaolers abuse them (their favourite description is schwoinhnud), and do everything they can to provoke tliom to retaliate in order that they may have an opportuntiy of shooting them down without mercy. Moreover, the British prisoners are put to do the most menial, disgusting and exhausting work, and at the mere whim of their gaolers they are lashed to a stake and left there for hours at a time., To us it was wonderful to see how in spite of all this' the British soldiers in captivity manage to boar up. "When the Boches insult them they only laugh; when they are tied to the stake they take their, punishment stoically, . and on being released they walk on smiling, as if they were going ' on parado. It is easy to see from their whole bearing how profound is their contempt for the men who try in vain to break their spirit. French or Belgian prisoners are sometimes given employment which tends to relieve the tedium of captivity; British prisoners ,nevor. Wo Belgians, when wo - first went to Parchim, and for some tirno afterwards, were allowed to buy sugar and bread and fat bacon at the canteen to supplement our miserable rations, but the English prisoners liad their money taken from them. Often we have taken pity on some who were evidently starving, and have given them part of our food, but, of course, we could not spare much, and there were so many who were hungry."