"BLACK HOLE OF LILLE"

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 65, 11 December 1918, Page 5

"BLACK HOLE OF LILLE"

HORRIFYING DETAILS BY WAR PRISONERS PACKED IN UNDERGROUND ■ CAVERN London, December 9. Some war prisoners give horrifying details of the "Black Hole of Lille." It was a huge underground cavern where 270 men were confined for Jivo weeks in an unspeakable state of neglect, famine, and disease. They had no clothing or covering except that in which they had left the battlefield, and they wcro only allowed in the upper nir for ten minutes daily. Twenty of the men were taken to hospital suffering from dysentery, and the vermin had to be scraped off their clothing with knives. The place was not cleaned during the five weeks, and the food was so foul as to be uneatable. The men practically went mad. Tkoy. used to lie on tho ground killing vermin and singing hymns. The men used to light to reach n latticed window ten feet above the floor, in order to get air. They were compelled to bathe their wounds with coffee— Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. EXPERIENCES. London, December 8. The majority of tho Australians who are arriving at Itipon (Yorkshire) wero captured at Bullecourt, Fleurbnii, and in the minor Somme engagements. One .paiity was shifting coal at Bremen when the\ armistice was signed, and the Soldiers and Workmen's Council immediately gave them passes into Holland, and paid their railway fares. Another party was sent from Sassnitz, via Copenhagen, to Leith. They were mostly engaged in coal-heaving at Baltic ports, but downed tools when the armistice was signed, and were sent to Sassnitz - They received a cordial welcome at Copenhagen. The majority of tha men, after being taken prisoners, were compelled to work behind the enemy lines, within range of the Allied shells, until Juno 21. _ They were then removed after an intimation from their captors that reprisals had been abandoned.

Prior to tho removal' of the prisoners, a long-range Allied shell caused eleven casualties, including seven deaths, among a working party of British prisoners, of which four Australians were wounded. Signaller Dawkins, of tho 56th Battalion, relates how, between November, 191G, and March, 1917, the British prisoners, including fo ir Australians, were kept at Queant for six weeks without a wash or a change of clothes. The daily ration was a quarter .of a loaf of bread and a litre of soup made from v horsefle3h and turnips. .. When they were removed to Escourt in March only eighty were ■ loft. A number had died, and the rest ! werc taken to Germany sick and inca-pacitated.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. ANOTHER' ATROCITY REVEALED. (Ree. December 10, 9.10 p.m.) Berne, December 9. A report from the delegates of the Spanish Embassy states that nine French prisoners at Landensalz Camp were shot at point-blank range, and killed by the Germans. Fifteen others were wounded. Tho report adds: "Tlio prisoners' behaviour in nowise justified this savagery."—A us.-N.Z. Cable Assn.-Eeuter.