MURDERED BRITISH PRISONERS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 278, 13 August 1918, Page 4

MURDERED BRITISH PRISONERS

FROZEN LIKE BLOCKS OF ICE. The torture and murder of British prisoners by Germans is described by a member of- tho Royal Naval Division who was captured at Antwerp in October, 1914; and has recently escaped and arrived in England. In February last year, he says, 200 prisoners, of whom he was one, wero marched 22 miles from Libau to work near tho German firing-line. They were surrounded by an Uhlan guard, who prodded them forward with lances, through snowdrifts sometimes waist-deep. They had to go on without food .or halt. , One man—A. Sawyer, R.N.D.—was charged by an Uhlan, whoso lance struck hia head. Ninety of the prisoners collapsed, and many others were bleeding from lance wounds. They were told that they • had been brought under fire because the English had German prisoners working in their trenches. As retaliation for the alleged murder of 36 German prisoners it had been decided that 36 out of 500 prisoners there should fco killed. "Groups of three prisoners were formed, so that for the misdeeds of ono of them allEthree were taken from 'the working parties at tho end of tho day and made to mount on a brick. They were tied to a pole, and tfyo brick was kicked away, leaving their feOt a little way from tho ground. In thi6 position they were kept -for 2J hours each night for U nights in intense cold. 1 Forty men died under this treatment, for when they were released they were like blocks of ice. "A'man named Skit, Grenadier Guards, collapsed in tho snow, and the Hun guard, saying, 'You are no good any longer,' shot him dead through the head. "It was not until these' 40 men had died that the others got better treatment. During that time some men wero found frozen in their beds." The same man described how at Libau the Germans dressed 10 British prisoners like sailors, got tljem in a boat, and told them to row from a wrecked ship to a German destroyer. They were hauled on board the destroyer by tho Gorman sailors, given coffee and cigarettes, and new clothing, A kinema picture was taker., and a photograph appeared in tho German papers headed, "Our Navys kindness to the enemy sailors when they sink their ships. In return they starve our women and children."