OUR POOR MEN. "

Hokitika Guardian, 20 July 1918, Page 4

OUR POOR MEN. "

“SKELETONS IN RAGS.”

London, May 24

11l both Houses of Parliament this week questions will be asked about the arrangements lor an exchange ot prisoners ot war with Germany. For nearly a fortnight The I lines lias been printing revelations as to the almost incredible ferocity with which the Huns treat the prisoners of war, and particularly the British, who fall into their hands. We give a few extracts from these shocking narratives:

A British master mariner had his , ship torpedoed and was taken prisoner in a submarine. Refusing to answer questions, he was sentenced to be shot on reaching port, or before that if he caused any j annoyance. At Heligoland, while j his clothes were searched, he was j kept naked in intense cold for three hours, while German officers stood about laughing. Eventually his clothes were returned to him wet, and he was placed in a barracks, his only covering being some blankets which abounded with vermin. lie adds: “ The treatment of prisoners here was brutal and their condition pitiable. Skeletons in rags—if on being put to work they fell down from weakness they were kicked and clubbed, beaten with the flat of swords, and kept standing at attention in treezing weather as long as they could stand. Many had unhealed wounds. We all had to fight like wild beasts for food that a dog would refuse.” A petty officer of the Royal Naval Division, captured at Antwerp in 1914, says that at Reiskatte, where British prisoners were put in the front-line trenches to construct dug-outs and shelters, the German S.*n tries were paraded every morning and reminded of the treatment alleged to have been given to German prisoners in France. The sentries "were recommended to treat the British prisoners in the same way. The prisoners were “ absolutely crawling with vermin, and were only allowed two baths between February 25 and June ri.”

SUSPENDED FROM TREES,

At Kilezeen in July 1916, this petty officer saw seven men tied up to trees at one time. The}’ were tied up with ropes, which passed under their arms, and their hands were fastened above their heads. After they were tied up the blocks on which they stood—which raised their feet well above the ground were kicked from under them, thus leaving them suspended. When cut down these men were unable to stand. There was a plague of mosquitoes at the time, and two oi the men who were tied up had their faces so badly bitten that they were

unable to see owing to swellings round their eyes. They were tied up' for two hours each morning for 14 days. This was done because they had refused to work in m:nes 12 months previously at Munster. On the night of Good Friday, T 917, Private Skett, of the Coldstream Guards, was put on fatigue duty with a party removing German baggage from I/itchen to Pinne, over swampy ground. They finished about 9 p.m., having had nothing since a cup of coffee at 4.30 a.lll. “Skett, who became very exhausted,

kept falling down in the mud and snow and he held on to the back of

a cart for assistance. The sentry kept on bullying him, but Skett was so weak from hunger and ex-

haustion that lie continually fell clown on to his knees. When they were near the camp he again fell, and could go no farther. The sentry came up, and ordering him to come 011, said in German: ‘Do you understand ?’ Skett replied ‘Yes.’ As he did nut move the sentry said in German, ‘You aie stupid.’ Skett replied that it was not he but the sentry who was stupid, meaning, as.it is explained to me, that the sentry was silly, as he knew Skptt’s condition. The sentry then put the point of his bayonet to Skett's left breast and shot him. His body was taken to camp, where my informant saw it lying next morning, covered with a piece of corrugated iron, at the end of a German dug-out.”

A DELIBERATE ASSASSIN 7 . At Sennelager, on January 7 17 of this year, there were 62 prisoners of all nationalities. Flight men were ordered to draw coffee from the camp. A British private refused to go, as the linglish were unable to drink the alleged coffee. The sentry attempted to strike the British soldier with the butt of his rifle, but he pushed the rifle down with both hands. The sentry ordered the remainder of the prisoners to the other side of the room; then, turning about, walked to the door, about ten paces, when he turned about again. Two Frenchmen were standing in front of the British solflier in the line of fire, and the sentry ordered them to get over to the left. Pie then threw open his overcoat and came to the aim, but as the aim was not comfortable he cleared Ins shoulder of the overcoat and came to the aim the second time and fired, hitting the British soldier in

the left side. He died in about four minutes. This deed was not com •

mitted in the heat of the moment, but was absolutely deliberate. A sickening story of how the “reprisals” were effected on the Russian front is told by a British N.C.O. now interned in Holland. A party of 500 were set to march from Mittau with an escort of Uhlans. “ When the order ‘ March ’ was given the Uhlans immediately turned their'horses into us; they also used their lances on several men to make them keep up; the pace they set was nearly a double. . . We received a Halt of five minutes each hour. The treatment during this part of the journey was worse than bad ; any man slightly out ot his section of fours was struck on the head with the point of a lance. We endured this kind treatment for several hours, when men started to fall out, utterly exhausted. When the escort saw them, they rode up and beat them with lances and whips,

and if they could not get up at all, they turned them face downwards in the snow to await the arrival of sleighs. The escort rifled any man’s kit who fell out, taking out the best things and destroying the rest.”

At Hie end' ot the journey only about 200 men could walk, and that verv badly. . After about a fortnight men began to tail sick from frost- • bite and some from dysentry, I brought on by the appalling treat- j ment.

A SHAMEFUL 11U RIAL. At Merseburg there were a number of prisoners, men of the Old Army. They were set to work 011 farms for 12 hours a day, and that was afterwards increased to 14. A_ soldier who had had the fingrr ot one hand shot away—wound not healed—held up his hand to show that he was unfit for work. A sentry shot him through the chest, and Ins body was thrown down the stairs. A German officer, coming to see the bodv, was shown a small cut on a sentry’s hand, the inference being that the murder was punishment for an attack.

“ The officer shook hinds with the sentry and went away, after telling the other men that they must work from 4 in tile morning till 7 in the evening. The next day some ol them were made to dig , a grave in a corner of the cemetery, which had been used as a rubbish heap. That night the body, still in clothing saturated with blood, was placed in a rough coffin, and the next da}’ it was buried in.the P re " sence ol a crowd of jeering Germans, who talked, pointed, and everv now and then burst into loud roars of laughter. The fuueial was conducted bv a Roman Catholic priest who showed plainly by Ins manner that, he snared the unseemly sentiments of the crowd. A British soldier, at bread parade in the camp at Schneidemu.il (Prussia), failed to understand the order of a German sentry.. The sentry struck him, and he tried to hide in a hole.

“ The German adjutant, with several other officers, evidently determined to make an example of him. He was captured, and stripped to the waist. A barrel was fetched, and he was strapped across it. Six' German soldiers were then supplied with thick wooden staves which had been used for holding the barbed wire placed round the camp. For 10 minutes these six German soldiers beat the soldier ovei the head, bare back, and body. At the end of that time he was practically unconscious, <iucl held to be carried away. He u’as then tied to a post and left in a fainting condition. While he was there a German officer came up to look at him, struck him with his sworn, spat, at him and called hiiM an English swine.’ From all this he never recovered. For a month lie was able to get about, but his head and face remained swollen from the treatment he had received, and he suffered severely all the time. Three weeks later lie was deadNone of his companions v. as allowed to see his body or attend his funeral. Tiie German reason lor his death was that lie had died of typhus, and this tale was told to the American representative who visited the camp, but his companions knew 7 that it was untrue.