STUDIED GERMAN CRUELTY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1551, 16 May 1916, Page 2

STUDIED GERMAN CRUELTY.

AX Australian who was for :i lime ;i prisoner :il Ruhleben, Mr A. D. McLaren, writes ,-is follows of German cruelties to prisoners :—“During mv first week in Ruhlcben I interviewed lifty-one individnuls who had been interned in other rumps in (iernninv. Some of the details they gave me of their treatment brought to light the inherent nut are of: Dentschtum. The German instinct, when 1 the infliction of pain on an enemy is concerned, is something positive and characteristic. If is not the mere taking reprisals, it is not I lie absence of certain other instincts, bnf rather a studied cruelty, an active, sometimes refined, delight in torturing. There are recitals that bear a burning conviction on their face, that Jal oaf from the crop of atrocities and rumours of atrocities which strife between nations always breeds. 1 select a witness who had been interned at Sennelager, Munster and Celle. At one of these camps, for several cold nights the prisoners had no shelter at all, and either slept on the ground or wandered about till morning. At another, a common form of punishment was to lie the prisoners by the arms and feet to trees, but so that the feet did not rest on the ground. “Have 1 yon ever undergone this punishment V 1 asked. ‘Oh, yes, I have the marks of the cord on my arms yet.’ ‘dust show them to me.’ ‘That’s very easy. Thure.’ ‘What were the commonest offences for which this punishment was inllicted V ‘Lying on the bed at any time between (i a.in', and (i p.m., and smoking in prohibited places.’ frequently the unfortunate sufferers were in a state of collapse for hours after (hey were ‘cut down,’ sometimes they fainted. Xor must (he responsibility for this be charged to a few ignorant soldiers. The members of a deputation that protested to the officers were sentenced to three days’ solitary confinement for insubordination. At one camp a Belgian Just brought in in a famishing condilioif rushed for the bread-cart, which, as it happened, was at the moment being dragged by some prisoners to the kitchen. My informant saw this Belgian shot dead on (he spot.”