IN KRUPP'S NET

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 89, 8 January 1918, Page 7

IN KRUPP'S NET

ALL NATIONALITIES HELD FOR WORK. That the groat Krupp factory at Essen is being seriously hampered by lack of trained, men, and that those employed there are discontented with their conditions of work and of living, is the story brought to Rotterdam by two young mechanics who recently escaped from Germany after working against their will at the immense Krupp plant. Their account of how' they were induced to go to Essen shows the duplicity of the German agents sin Holland, the fatherland of the two mechanics.

"Early in September," they told a representative of "Tho Times" of London. "wo were approached by a Dutch rt'orkman, whom wo had both known, and who said to us, 'Do you want to go where you can make 40 guilders .a week?' We said that we did, and we followed him to the offico of a firm and accepted an offer to work in Germany as navvies. Our wages were to bo about four and a half dollars a day. We received a ticket by which ive could get a photograph and a ticket for'our passport. A few days later wo found ourselves in company with about a score more of Dutch workmen, mostly skilled mechanics in the iron trade, at the railway station, and under tho guidance of a member of the Krupp firm we travelled to Essen.

"We had no option as to where and when wo should work, for the next day wo were forced to enlist as munition workers at the Krupp factory. We started at tho branch of tho plant where 4.7 shells arc manufactured. No protest helped us at all. We worked alongsido deported Belgians as well as French, Russian, and Belgian prisoners, with a handful of German men and women. AVe were forced to work because unless we„ worked wo got no food. Our day was eight hours long, practically without any break at all. There were twelve shell presses in our department, but two of them were not in use owing to the shortage'of men. The atmosphere was insufferably hot and close, • and men occasionally fainted at their work."

Both were struck with the persistent silence of the men about the war, which was never discussed in the works. The men, indeed, they declared, seemed to have lost their power of thought and. individual action.