HIS LIFE IN KRUPPS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1698, 14 April 1917, Page 4

HIS LIFE IN KRUPPS.

STORY OF DRUDGERY AND FOOD TICKETS. A striking description of conditions in Germany has been given by a man who was working at Krupps great armament factories in Essen up to January last. As a Belgian civil prisoner, Francis Van Wen was one of a batch of 250, which included Frenchmen and Russians, that was sent eighteen months ago to help in the construction of extensions at Krupps’ works. On January 20th he contrived to escape, and has rejoined his family, who are among the refugees who have found a home in Leeds.

Krupps. he stated, are working night and day, and the order in Essen is that all males between the ages of twelve and sixty must work on munitions. When he left the works were still being extended. There was a big fire at the works about a year ago, and some time ago a large munition factory about

thirty miles from Essen was destroyed by tin explosion caused by hostile aeroplanes. His story of life in Essen was one of unceasing drudgery, “Every day,” he said, “we were marched out of the camp under a guard of German soldiers to start work at six o’clock, and at eight in the evening we were marched back to (‘amp. We were kept hard at work all day, and had very little food. We had no meat —only soup made from beans or fish. The bread was made from potatoes, carrots, beetroot, and black (lour.

Asked as to whether the people of Essen fared any better, Van t Wein said that the people complained that the prisoners were better fed than they were, and told them that in England the German prisoners were not treated nearly so well. He had heard of three food riots in Essen, and said that there was often trouble in the market place about the prices of food. In the camp they heard of the women going with their food tickets to the

shops at seven in the morning, waiting all day in the queue, and having to go away at seven in the evening without getting anything.

Van Wen stated that he had witnessed the following incident: —A dog had picked up a dirty piece of bread in the street and was running away with it when a woman ran after the dog, took the bread from it, and ate it. Giving examples of prices, he stated that a ham cost 150 marks (about £6), horseflesh was about five marks a pound, a pair of brown leather bools cost £2.

Regulations are so strict in Essen that in order to prevent any person from another town coming there to buy articles of clothing or commodities other than food, no goods are delivered under a period of three days. A customer goes to the shop with his card, gives the order, and pays cash. The shopkeeper takes the number of his card, and submits it to the police to check it. If the police are satisfied, the goods are delivered. So desperately driven were some of the prisoners, Van Wen stated, that they killed the rats in the camp, and cooked them for supper. Besides being employed in building prisoners arc set to work to make shells. They were paid at rates varying from ten marks to eighteen ma rks.