TORTURING PRISONERS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 231, 18 June 1918, Page 3

TORTURING PRISONERS

HOW THE HUNS TREAT THOSE

TAKEN IN WAR

A HONS MAN'S STORY

An interesting letter has been received by Mr. W. S. Anderson, of Vogeltown, Wellington, from Sergeant W. Av. Marshall, who »vns taken prisoner at the iinttle ot' Mone, ami who was for over three vears a prisoner of war in Germany." He was recently included in a draft of exchanged prisoners, and writes iVom The Hague, in Holland, under date April 7, 11118. Sergeant Marshall was a member of the Itoya! Field Artillery at the Battle of Mons. He gives some tietails of the cruel treatment to which prisoners of war are subjected in Germany. He says:—

"After reaching Germany in company with others wo were subjected to all sorts of humiliation by soldiers and civilians. 'Woiir.asd men were treated in ii most inhuman manner. If they could get near cuoiign to you they would spit in your face, and generally ill-use you. A favourite game was to throw stones at us. Jly first experience of a prisoner's laager was to bo put into a compound surrounded by barbed wire. This laager held, roughly, 450(1 prisoners, and was about MO yards square. There were no buildings, tents, or cover of any kind. The ground was nothing but black saud, and this was 'our bed. When captured everything was taken from us with tuo exception of what we stood in. You may guess what wo were like in a very short time, witii having to lie in .sand; no chance of washing, 110 soap, towels, or anything to wash with, at the same time gradually being starved. Of course, in a very short time everybody was covered with "vermin, and in a very filthy condition generally. This 6tate .of affairs lasted until tho arrival of parcels from Englaifd. The- Germans did everything in their power to force us to volunteer for work. At one period about 500 of us, all non-com mission-ncl officers, were made to march round :i circle for nine hours a day every day in the week except Sundays. This failed to .have the desired effect. Afterwards they took a niimber of us at a time, giving us oach a tool called a hacker, and marched us out of the gates and on to a piece of ground that looked as if it had been under corn at some time. After showing us how to use the tools, and what was required of us, we were told to commence work. Not. a man attempted to do a stroke. After asking us our reason for not. _ working, wo were formed 'up, with sentries posted around us, with their bayonets fixed, and there we had to stand fori a solid hour, rigidly still, not cveu a movement of the head'. This is a form of punishment. known in Germany as 'stillistand.' It is very trying, and naturally, some of the men collapsed. They were allowed to remain on the ground, and nobody was allowed to touch them. Rifles were used on men in many instances. I have, known cases of men being bayoneted to death. 1 know of two men here who were bayoneted, and whilst they themselves were defenceless. I know another man whoso arm was smashed with the butt end of a rifle because .he refused to work in a munitions factory, and ho was then left for'eighteen days without having his arm dressed or set. Of .course, that, arm is useless. I know of another who had his nose smashed with a rifle. This sort of thing was happening all over Germany. The Geitnan nation as a whole, from my experience of them, aro the most despicable set of people that you could have anything to do with. One of their latest moves is to send our officers and n.c.o.'s into the bombing area, in order to stop our fliers from going over ani 'dropping bombs on German towns."