FIENDISH GERMAN CRUELTY

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 283, 19 August 1918, Page 5

FIENDISH GERMAN CRUELTY

TO BRITISH PRISONERS AND THE

WOUNDED

;• BURNED WITH LIQUID FIRE y . I BRITISH GOVERNMENT PROTESTS TO GERMANY (Rec. August IS, 5.5 p.m.) London, August 17. Details aro officially published of gross ontragos, perhaps unparalleled in liendisli cruelty, upon British prisoners and wounded men in March last. The facts are authenticated by sworn statements of Scottish soldiers who were of tho uartv maltreated. Privato Eenald, of the Highlanders, '.ells how ho and a number of comrades wero surrounded and compelled to surrender near Moncby on March 28. "Our ri(le3 and equipment were taken. AVo consisted of an officer and sixteen men. ton of whom wero wounded, Wo ivcro i- lined up in the original front-line, tronch > and left without a guard for some time, r Then a German officer and two men iip--0 pearod on t the edge of,the trench. One a man carried a container on his biinlr. g The other was armed with a. rifle Mid a short bayonet. The officer carried a - revolver. The officer gave an order to 1 the man with the container, who turned 3 a stream of liquid fire straight down the tronch in which wo were standing. They could plainly see wo wero unarmed, but continued, to play on ua for six oi snen minutes." The witness added thiit ho [ and a few companions who-were able to move scrambled down the communication trench and got over the top 'o the British lines. / A private says that after he and some 3 other prisoners wero captured and disr armed they were marched down the 5 trench to an emplacement about six feet deep, niuo feet wide, and nine to 3 twelve feet long, the sides being perpent dicular except at one end. The prisoni ers were tightly packed in the enclosure, i Two Germans appeared at the ontrauro ■ of the emplacement. One carried a Tβvolver, and appeared to be on officer, The other had strapped to hie baok n cylinder with a flexible pipe, the end of which ho can'ied,in his hand. Justas ho reached tho entrance to the c-n----closuj'e a flame epurted in a stream frtra . the pipe, and caught the men who vero ' nearest the eitrance. "I immediii'elv J dropped, and got my face on the ground. ' Tho other men lay in heaps around aiid . partly on mo. I heard a hissing nonnd • for a short while. Then it stopped and restarted. During this time the men . vere shrieking and writhing about. The (lame reached tho right bank ft> vlier/s j ', I was, and my orereont and tunic ow-cbl: I fire. By this time all the men wcw vn j ] the ground." This soldier managed *.o crawl up the slope and get away. ! Another private ehows that an officer, I who was wounded in tho head and Iho fuot, four wounded man, and thrco unwounded, including the narrator, were in i tho old trench tvhen the Germane catno. I Ono stood with a revolver in his band j ;ifld ordered the party to get back.'o '.ho ! i termaii lines. The other man squirted I liquid firo over all tho party. ' Th'e ucrrator's hands wero burned, and one of his ears. Three of the party managed to run and reach the British lines. Tho Germans must either have suffocated or burned all the five wounded men, for nothing further was heard of them. The British Government has protested lo Germany against "these outrajree.-Aus.-N.Z. Cablo Assn.-Reuter.