LEST WE FORGET

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 29, 29 October 1918, Page 9

LEST WE FORGET

bun brutalities to prisoners startling! details Under the title "Tho v ;Quality .of Meroy" Mr. Keble Howard (London: The Avenue Press) has compiled from a British [White Paper 'passages ■from, the statements of 48 British, officers and 77 non-commissioned officers and men who were captured by the Germans at different times between the outbreak of the war- and the end' of 1914. Here are some extracts:— •' , "At Cologne," says ■ LieutenantColonel Neish, of the. Gordon Highlanders, taken from Moris i.to Sennelager about the ond of August, 1914, "I saw a female with a Ked Cross badge on her, after serving our escort with coffee, deliberately pour- remainingi'contonts of the can on the ground when requested to allow us to have some." . . , : .-■ "At every ■ considerable , station," says Major E. H. Jones, R.F.A., taken from Cambrai to Torgau between August 31 and September 3, 1914, "there were Red Cross women, who gave-our guards' coffee, food, cigars, etc., but who absolutely refused us even /water; I do not think that so much as a cup of water was given to us by the Ger-. man Red Cross during the whole jour- , ney. . . .', We" met with the same treatment aIL along . the line .at the hands of the Red Cross and the crowd." ', . Major Arthur S. Peebles, of the Suffolk Regiment,, .taken NfrpnVJCambrai to Torgau betwee'ii. August''3l and September 3, 1914; -says:' station we asked twb'.Red tVoss 'ladies' for-a glass of water, -'saying ;,jt •'■«■ wounded officer.-.They burst:6ut'laughing, and said, "Nothing', foryou.'Englisn.'" .'.' ■■'■[ :- ';■ ■-. . "The G,erman Red Cros's,' , says Captain Beaman, R.A.M.C.,, taken ; from Mons to'Torgau between September "1 ond 4, 1914, "gave ; no "■ food to prisoners, wounded or; otherwise; ;At times it is shown to withdrawn, with kindly;, remarks'that it is not for swine."V,'.^''.A Vi.;': ; .'j ' 'Wery frequently;"; says'.LieutenantColonel Collingwpo4i;:K.AlM'.C.. taken from Mons-to Torgau.; Between September 1' and* 4, -1914,- " : wh'en ; our,men asked; , fori-coffee, or 6oup; : of 'the ißed; Cross 'workers', '."they'i;iji'erei'- spat; at, yph had their .mugs knobbed -out/of; .their' 'hands."": '-'-J' -"'w' ■'•'','''■■'■'*'■''■'•:? V; '{' . ..:■"■'. , Major Furness, of the R.A.M.C., 'dealing with the same'journey, says: "The Red Cross representatives-were everywhere, if possible, tho most venomous. I was told by othor officers that they spat on the' food before serving jt to the English prisoners." ■ "The Red Cross wombn treated us. vilely. The'women referred to 'are those to be found on the l 'railway stations for the purpose' of supplying refreshments to the. troops passing through. ■ They came- to the carriage windows with coffee and sandwiches, showed us these things, and took them away without giving us anything. At some places they spat at-us." This is the evidence of Captain Browne, R.A.M.C, who testifies above to the kindness of,, the guard, thus proving beyond all doubt the sincerity of his indictment, of the .German.Red Cross women; :

Captain Hargroayes, Somerset. Light Infantry':—'.'At Liege'l tried personally to get the, German Red .Cross offh cials to give our wounded meii water. They refused. I saw some German Cross-'nurses actually bring water in cans up to our men, show it to them, and then pour, it on tho platform. This. ajso. happened to' mo personally. - 'At Aix-la-Chapelle there was an elaborate Red Cross dressing-station; .' : AII water and food was rigorously refused us. The Gorman wounded in. the train had their wounds ..dressed. This was refused us." '

Captain Fraser, R.A.M.C, taken from Cambrai to Doberita between September 8 and 8, 1914,-also , bears testimony to. this "refinement" of cruelty. "The Red Cross officials and women/'. ho says, '.'brought soup to the'train, showed'it to the British, then took it away, calling them swine, and blackguards. The women were' 'almost worse in this rpswet than the men." •

Major R. P. Meiklejohn, of the Royal Warwick's, taken' from Cambrai to Brunswick in the early days of Septomber of tho same year, is likely " tot rememhrt , the German! Hed Cross officials to. the day of his death. ■"Throughout this journey," he says, "the' conduct of the German women, especially 'those dressed as Red Cross nurses, .jva's revolting and barbarous beyond, words, and, as a result of the continuous brutality of Red Cross homen and officials, many prisoners of war, besides myself, have still a repiig-. nance of seeing a Red Cross armlet. During September 5 wo appeared to be making, a tour of Germany 'on; exhibition,, being insulted in every way, especially by Rod Cross women. . . '. During this day also soup was emptied on the "platforms in front of our carriage when -we asked for it, and the conduct oi the German: populace, and especially that of Red Cross women and officials, was barbarous " # Major H. W. Long, R.A.MIC.', during the Mons-Torgau journey ■in the early days; of September, learnt something 'of Gcrnijii women, that, astonished him. "Tlie German Red Cross took no notice of us, and;did.iiot even give us water. ■ I pointed 'to my: own Red Cross, but without effect. I could not believe that women could behave so cruelly.", , . ;

A particularly bad case is recorded by Captain J. H. W. Knight-Bruce, of the Royal Warwicks. ' This incident occurred during the journey from Bortry to Duisburg,. September 9, 1914. "Our English doctor," he says, "called the attention of a German doctor to a man in my carriage with a grazed femoral artery, which had to be contained by a tourniquet all the time owing to the jolting, causing the man ■great suffering. The German doctor was very rude at being asked about the case, and refused to allow the man to be taken out. This man died a few, days later of hemorrhage. He would most certainly, have recovered if he had been taken out and kept quiet as tho graze was not severe." ' Captain Thomas, of the Munster Fusiliers: "Before the train started again some German soldiers came and 'searched me, and in so knocked be about rather badly, while a.German Red Cross man stood by and applaudedthem, and said if they found a knife on me he would cut my throat ■jvith it. . . . The German Red Cross people at'the stations were particularly bad. One night in-the-train the tube in my throat became nearly stopped up, and I could not breathe, so the Unter-Ofßzior in charge called a doctor who was on the .train, and he came and poked at it with a piece of stick that he had cut out of the hedge by the line." The unfortunate victim genorously adds that this rough treatment 'frend my respiration a little." We were met on tho platform," Bays Captain H. 0. Sutherland, of the Northumberland Fusiliers, who travelled from Sissonne to Giossen betweon November 14 and 16, 1914, "by German Red Cross orderlies. One of theso lifted a private, who had a leg and an arm broken, out of tho carriage, held him over a stretcher about two or three feet above it, and then deliberetely let him drop." Lioutenant Denny, of the Somerset f&ght Infantry, taken from Le QuesSsry to Lille, December 19 and 20, 1914, wa3 compelled by a German hospital nurse to walk 100 yards, through e, crowd of hilarious Germans, utterly, naked save for a pair of socks.

The stories of the men, though briefer, amply bear out the behaviour of the German "angels of mercy." "Wβ saw some German Red Cross nurses, ~ says Private. C. Brash. (No.. 8927), j Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. | "The only thing'l remomber.about them is that'some-of them spat in our faces. And- what' of tho German officers at this period? What was the attitude of thoso gentlemen—whose modest ambition it is to subdue to whole world and model all humanity, after their. fashion—towards the prisoners or war entrusted to their carci . What steps, did" they take to .preserve and exalt the good name of the Fatherland? • "Tho new. officer in charge of the train," says Captain M.ddleton, R K M.C., taken irom Hal to Hanover August 28-30, ? pi4, "was the other and more plentiful tape,, tho loud-voiced bully and cad. We, in our ignorance, came to the conclusion that he must be either half drunk or not quite sane. After constantly meeting tho typo for a number of months wo know now that he was neither of those things-only German. ■ "At Mons Bergen," says Major Vandaleur, of the Scottish Rifles, taken from i)ouai to Crefeld, October l>2o, 1914 "I was pulled out in front of the wagon by the,.order of .the officer incharge of the station, and, after curs-m in" me in filthy-language for BOme ten mmutes, he ordered one of his soldiers to kick me back into tho "wagon, which he did, sending'me sprawling into the filthy mess at the bottom of the wagon.". '.--.• ,- ■ ' . '.! .'•An officer, seeing that some-or m were very footsore, told the escort to put a lance through anyone who could, not keep up." This is the evidence of Captain i'onng, Cheshire Regiment, who was iu the same party'with Major Varidaleur, and corroborates every word of- the Major's story. , ■ Sergeant R,, Gilling (No. 4652), of tho Scots Greys, taken from Mons to Osnabruck in September, 1914, learnt something of German • officers. ' "The moment we arrived at Mons," ho testifies, "we all were taken .info the station, where, two trainloads of German troops had just arrived.. These troops wero drawn up in. two lines; _we were made to march through the lines, and were subjected to gross insults and illtreatment.. Curses were hurled at us, the men spat on us, ; *and kicked us; we wero struck with sabres and bayonets, mid Germans were not particular us to whether flesh-wounds were inflicted or not; very many men with'crutches had these kicked from , , under-1 heir arms, and when patients fell, the crutches were.iieed to beat them with. During this episode German officers and n.0.0.'s were' with their .men, and they, far from, discouraging their men, encouraged them, even to tho extent of cursing us in German and English, and of taking part in these cowardly assaults'., Tho officers wero not young officers', bill I eaw many captains. I knew their .badgos, because I had a small pamphlet which I had studied."

~ Mr. Koble Howard asks—"How long will it take the. Germany Army to live down such deeds as those? What nation under the sun, however small and weaki would not rather le wiped put to the , last child than live taidor tho .heels "of such foul'monsters? Surely the day of reckoning' shall cornel And the reckoning must be paid, not only, by the German toldiers and officers, not only by the German Rkl Cross officials, male and female, but also by the eoually- guilty German populace.' Had they., shown any pity fur our prisoners we might hav.e believed .those who tell us that the German civilian is a long-suffering and kindly creature, who must be regarded as the victim or the. militarist •party;"-, .■■..- .. . . v