GHOULISH WARBEHIND THE LINES

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2915, 30 October 1916, Page 6

GHOULISH WARBEHIND THE LINES

6 GERMAN DISEASE-SPREADERS EXPOSED Australian-Hew Zealand Cable Association. Paris, October 27. The Fronch Government has published a report on the treatment of prisoners in France and Germany, showing how reprisals had secured a mitigation of the brutalities practised on prisoners. The French commenced by feeding tho Germans lavishly, but when detailed reports of the miserablo conditions in the German prison camps arrived, Germany was informed that the French methods would be altered unless the prisoners in Germany wore hetter treated.

For a fortnight the Germans did' nothing, so tho allowance of moat to Gorman prisoners was reduced from 12oz. to -lsoz., and of bread from 240z. to lOJoz. Typical menus from tho German camps wore secured and duplicated in France.

When the Germans stopped the prisoners' parcels and letters, tho French acted in a similar way, until the Germans altered their conduct. Tho Frenchmen,. however ( did not give decayed food or mix prisoners with others infected with typhus. The Gorman commandant of the camp at Cassel met the French protests with the ferocious remark: "I make war in my own way."

Several cases of murder are recorded, including that of a soldier who was bayoneted for misunderstanding an. order. Savage tortures were inflicted. They included brushing the bare flesh until the blood flowed. The report includes many photographs and German letters.

MISS GERTRUDE ATHERTON'S INVESTIGATIONS.

London, October 27. A New York message dated September 24 has been released.

It states that Miss 'Gertrude Alherton, the novelist, who recently spent four months in 1< ranee, in a lettor to the New York "Times," confirms the French charges. "The Germans," she says, "deliberately infect prisoners with tuberculosis. Prisoners were returning in rags and suffering from tubercular disease, and requiring special treatment in the French hospitals. I learned from a thoroughly reliable source that French prisoners were not only forced to sleep with sufferers from tuberculosis, but to eat and drink from tho" same vessels, which were not washed. Moreover, there are authenticated cases in which the -men wero given injections of tuberculosis serum . under pretence of vaccination against typhoid."

This report _is confirmed by doctors who had special opportunities for obtaining accurate information.