A DREADFUL RECITAL

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2544, 19 August 1915, Page 5

A DREADFUL RECITAL

AMERICAN CITIZENS IN A GERMAN PRISON. • By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Rec. August 18) 9.30 p.m.) " . ; London, August 18. Mr. Burke, correspondent to tho Now York "World," and-who was resident in Lille, says that when tlic Germans occupied tho city ho was treated like an ordinary prisoner and sent to Langesalza. He passed a night of agony, lying in nmd. Tho Commandant of the camp practised the most extreme brutality. Sir. Burke discovered that this officer was formerly in business in Nottingham. Belgians, French, English,_ -Poles, Arabs, and negroes, twice ..daily .'.were subjected to drill in the; German language aud manners, "with a view to civilising backward students." They were cuffed and kicked, tho . Russians particularly Buffering—one dropped deait. The English were singled out for consistent maltreatment, and ;wero driven to desperation, because retaliation involved certain death. 'A Frenchman was also a-victim; to the senseless fury of tho gaolers, being knocked down and beaten unmercifully. Not five minutes passed without a repetition of these, brutalities. Tho English mostly were a battered crew, dressed, in rags, so that it was nimble for one to distinguish their regiments. Whilo one of them was wait ing ill tho queue outside tho canteen a sentry swiped him across the legs with bis rifle, and deliberately stabbed him in tho buttock. Complaint was useless. Two emaciated Kng'ishmen who had been lingering in hospital between life and death wero kicked out by a new doctor, both half crazy and clad in cotton shirts. While trying to assist each other they fell and neither- wero able to rise.- A French doctor ordered them milk, but tlio Germans refused. Smoking was prohibited, offendors being punched in the faco and tied to a post for hours, even by tho very soldiers who had sold them the cigarettes. The victims, in the biting cold, fell helpless when released. Mr. Burke petitions Washington to demand redress, for his sufferings. >