CRUELTIES OF RUHLEBEN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1575, 11 July 1916, Page 4

CRUELTIES OF RUHLEBEN.

RETURNED MAN’S STORY.

SHOCKING TREATMENT,

Details of the shocking treatment of British prisoners of war in Germany have been given by Mr Michael Gill, of South Shields, who has been interned at Ruhleben for nearly two years, and has just been released. He was a, member of the crew of the Glasgow steamer Bellailsa, which was at Hamburg at the outbreak of the war. The crew of the Bellailsa were ultimately removed to Ruhleben. “If it hadn’t been for the food sent out from home many of us would have died of hunger,” he declared. “I never saw meat for months, and even the bread was terrible. It was just like sawdust, and it took us all our time to get it down. I hadn’t a really substantial meal for months.”

The general treatment of the prisoners he describes as shocking. On more than one occasion they wont to bod at the point of the revolver. They were “knocked about” by the guards without the slightest provocation, and if they complained they got seventy-two hours’ confinement on bread and water.

“ENGLISH SWINE.”

On the slightest pretext a man was sent to a military camp, where the treatment is even more severe. British soldiers received revolting treatment. They are bullied for no reason whatever, and the derma ns never seem to get tired of calling them “English swine.” One of the German officers, a baron, was heard to say: “AVe are conquerors of the world, and we will remain conquerors!”

The cases were numerous in which military prisoners have been tied to trees and ill-treated in an oturageous fashion. The prisoners had to sleep on shavings which were in a disgusting state. The men were,frequently formed up, scantily attired, and kept standing in the cold for hours on end. There was absolutely no medical attention, and if a man were ill he had to cure himself as best ho could, INTERNAL SITUATION.

Speaking of the internal situation in Germany, Mr Gill said; —“I have been through the streets in Berlin. I saw practically no men in the streets who were not in uniform. There were a few boys, Hut none who appeared to be over seventeen years old. I have seen queues of women standing waiting for food. Sometimes they wait from live in the morning till nine at night, and then very often come away emptyhanded. Berlin is full of widows. You see them everywhere.”

The shortage of fond is so .serious, said Mr Gill, that even Ihe soldiers stationed in Germany are feeling the pineh. He has known them eagerly rake through the refuse boxes at Ruhleben Camp, and pick out pieces of scrapings of foodstuffs and eat them ravenously—the leavings of the English prisoner’s who had received supplies from home. German soldiers have even begged for fond for themselves and their wives.