"LEST WE FORGET"

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 57, 2 December 1918, Page 6

"LEST WE FORGET"

REMINDERS IN SYDNEY OF HUN CRUELTIES TO WAR PRISONERS "When Hie investigations into tho 'things the Germans have (lone ni'o completed, I hope that no guilty head will be too high for the halter."— Sir. Justice Ferguson, at tho Sydney Millions Club Prisoners of WarLun.iheon. . Tho prevailing note at the Prisoners of War Luncheon at the Millions Club some dnvs ago was "Lest We Forget." Mr. Arthur Hicka'rd, who occupied tho chair, said that the fiendish cruelty and Imrbarily of the Hun had made the whole world aghast. Germany was the coward Motion. He quoted an extract from a German work on the morality of war in proof that the fiendish deeds of tho Huns were port of a carefullyplanned system of warfare. Horrible Barbarities. Private Potter, who was a prisoner of war in Germany for eighteen months, said that in Delman Camp, in Germany, the rats ran under the floors of the huts. The Australian prisoners caught them, and whenever possible cooked and ate them. The men were practically starved, and ho had seen the bones almost coming through their skin. One form of punishment was to make the prisoners stand still in tho show, perished with the cold. If any fell down they were prodded with bayonets or kicked. In the summer they were made to stand out and face the sun and follow it round with their eyes. If they dropped their eyes when the strain became too great, and tho guards noticed it, they smashed the helpless men under the jaw with their fists. The speaker said his face and hat of the others with him had been black through being frost-bitten, and they would have died if one of tl« Russian prisoners had not showvn them how to rub the snow the frost-bitton parts. , , "I have seen them take the Australians," said Private Potter, "and string them up by the hands to a tree, with their feet just touching the ground. Thoy were swung to and fro with the wind until the pain became too great, and •fhev lapsed info unconsciousness. I have seen them swinging like this for about two hours. "1 have also seen the bodies of the Australians and the other prisoners m heaps piled just the same way as logs at a sawmill or like sleepers along the railway line. These were the men who through working behind the lines without proper food became too exhausted, and were then brought back to the camp to die like dogs. The men' went out to dig the graves of the fellows who had died the day before, knowing in many cases that somebody else would dig their graves possibly before the week or the month was out.

"They dressed our wounds once every ton days, and used paper bandages. The only tiling that kept us alive was the parcols we got through the Ked Crof.s. Private R. Wallach, who also had experience as a prisoner of war in Germain-, said that he was one of a batch of wounded' who were five days in a train without medical attention. Most of the wounds mortified. "We were fed twice a day," he said, "on thin sou]), bread, jind a jam made of rhubarb, which was very acid. Owing: to mortification setting in amputatians were' necessary. The men who performed the operations were not surgeons, and thore was little chloroform. "Not one of the wounded was put right off when the operation was being performed. The Ked Cross parcels kept us alive." Punish the Guilty.' Mr. Justice Ferguson moved: "That, after having heard first-hand ' information concerning brutalities of the Germans to our men, this gathering urges that the persons guilty of those atrocities, and the instigators thereof shall be handed over to the custody of the Allies, in-order that they receive fair trial, and if proved guilty receive adequate punishment." He said that he had very much pleasure in moving this 1 csolution. At the beginning; of the war he did not believe the stories about the fiendish deeds of the Germans. That a thing was incredible was not a reason for it not being believed against a German. A bishop had told him that he had seen with his own eyes njne babies lying in a'row, each with a bayonet wound through the stomach. If what they were, going to do to the Germans was a matter of more vengeance, then lot them get back to the ways of peace. But it was not a matter of mere vengeance, but that something should be done for the boneiit of the worid in the future. "And when tho investigations into the things the Germans have done are completed," continued Mr. Justice Ferguson, "I hope that no guilty head will be too high f".V the halter." The motion was seconded bv Mr. Fred Crouch, and carried with entliusiasm.