MISSSING GERMANS REAPPEAR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1863, 13 August 1918, Page 2

MISSSING GERMANS REAPPEAR.

THREE DAYS WITHOUT FOOD. The four internees on Somes Island—Charles Hadler, William Ot(eng (alias Bruner), Paul Wolf, and Kurt Ruhcnslciu —who disappeared some time bet ween 2 aml 7 o'clock on Friday morning, were discovered by the guanj at 7.30 yesterday morning, shivering and half-starv-ing, not in a carefully-screened dugout nor an out-of-the-way cave, but in the barbed-wire enclosure round the building itself. No unnecessary (jiiesliuns were asked, but the quart - e! were marched away to the cells, and their first want:; —food, and any amount of it—were supplied. It appears that some time early on Friday morning (says the Post), al'lei - a round of inspection of the quarters had been made by the officer in charge, the men contrived to lift some of the flooring hoards underneath the hunks, squeezed through, and “went to earth.’' Just what preparation was made for the lifting of the hoards or how they were replaced, is not yet definitely known, but that, no doubt, will he fully explained when the men come utj on trial for their breach of regulations. The whole escapade was presumably engineered to prove to the guard and authorities that an “escape” could be made, but therein the scheme was not a thorough success, for, though the Germans certainly succeeded in eluding the guard for three days, they made no attempt to puss the ring uf sentries drawn round the building. Apparently the men had had no food, or very little at most, since supper on Thursday night, and with merely warm but not special clothing, their sufferings as they lay, cramped and miserable, in their self-imposed prison within a prison, must surely have outweighed any feeling of enjoyment they could have fell over the discomfiture of the authorities and the guard. As a result of the escapade, the three hundred odd prisoners mi the island have, since Friday morning, been kept; far more closely confined I ban formerly, the restrictions in iuture are likely to he more stringent, and various favourite spots on the island, such as a series of hollowed dug-outs on ;i sunny face, where tiie prisoners passed leisure or study hours, have been placed out of oounds. The dug-outs, in fact, and their fittings, were destroyed during the search. Jt will he remembered that the men who escaped from the island on a rather crazy raft some little time ago had no great difficulty in eluding the sentries by reason of the tact that they were temporarily quartered in tents away from the, main building. These tents have now been dismantled, and the men are housed together. it has not yet been decided whether an official equity into the circnnislances of the Gernmn prisoners’ escape will be necessary.