ENEMY TREATMENT

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3142, 21 July 1917, Page 9

ENEMY TREATMENT

OF AN AUSTEALIAN SOLDIEE. Even if he has come back minus a leg (says the "Sydney Morning Herald") Private "Sammy" Payne, .formerly a miner, of AVallsend, has had tho satisfaction of baring crossed the Khine. He is only 25 years of age, and is one of the first of the prisoners of war, if not the first, to return "to his own country. His experience, although he related it only briefly, is an endorsement .of what ninny others have had to say of their treatment by the enemy. It whs at Fleurbaix that he was so wounded in tho ankle as to bo helpless. He was «■- dered not to try to- move until tho Eed Cross picked him up, but a few minutes afterwards ha found himself in enemy hands. He was carried behind the German lines, and was afterwards entrained i for Aachen, where lie .put in' about three months in hospital. This place," he says, "is in Cologne, and what I saw of the latter centre is very pretty, although my view was naturally a very circumscribed one. I had to view, things as through glasses darkly, so to speak, for I was not only in hospital, but I had to submit to treatment and a diet with which I was not satisfied." Private Payne pointed to his wooden leg. "They took my leg olf right from above the knee," he said, "although, in my opinion, the amputation need not have', extended nearly that far, because I was wounded .only at the ankle. I had certainly hoped to save a bit of my leg. Furthermore, my limb was not (ircssed and properly attended to for about eleven days after the amputation. As for the food, it was pretty bad, especially in view of the circumstances. I was not. a prisoner of war sound in limb: I was in hospital. The food consisted of black bread and coffee, and occasionally soup—watery kind of stuff. Sometimes potatoes came my way, and one day a we?k I was treated to a pancake. Generally, it was poor treatment and it was not with, any regret that I left the place. In striking contrast was the treatment both in Holland and in England."