MORE GERMAN "KULTUR."

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 24 August 1917, Page 3

MORE GERMAN "KULTUR."

TREATMENT OF BRITISH SAILORS. I laie following is yet another authentic \ story received from the Chief Irish Super- j intendent of the British and foreign '. Sailors' Society regarding German bru- '. tality to helpless merchant seamen.: 1 "The men of the German submarine' took one of the two ship's lifeboats to get aboard the s.s. Refugio on June 12, and when they had done with it kicked a hole in its bottom, -which the steward afterwards plugged with his shirt, and divided !,the crew of 36 (five Spaniards, two Arabs, five blacks, and 24 British) into the two boats. The weather was very rough and wet, and the exposure and want of water soon told upon them. The two boats had to be kept together by towing, but the rope broke owing to the heavy sea. The captain's boat was heaving straight to sea, and sailing fast, when the steward (Mr W. R. Wilson), in the second boat, swam to the captain's boat iirthe darkness of the night, and found them all exhausted and an a stupor, and woke them up, got the boat turned in the opposite direction (S.E.), and rowed towards land. It was a fearful effort, and one died from exhaustion. They soon -sighted land, and one boat got ashore. The other boat was drifting next the rocks when a crew organised by the Rev. A. Munro, assisted by Dr O'Docherty and the coastguards, under Mr F. J. King, coastguards officer, and a member of the Sailors' Society Local Committee, brought in the poor fellows to land. The men were helpless and could do nothings many were unconscious, but willing hands soon gathered and assisted the men from the boats, and brought them ashore, where nourishment in abundance was provided (though some had to be spoon-fed). Eleven died as the result of the exposure. The -25 survivors were taken under the care of the local branch of the British and Foreign Sailors' Societv. The society, as usual, supplied food and beds and fresh, outfits to the poor, wornout men, some of whom were still in a dazed condition, and glad to lie down. All except two were able to travel next dav for Liverpool. The two had to remain behind for a few days, as one (a black man from Jamaica) was too ill to leave, and the other, by doctor's orders, elected to stay with Mm. The Refugio, owned by Messrs John Cory and Sons, Cardiff, fought, the submarine for two and a-half hours, and if the men could have kept it up just a little longer they might have been victorious. The captain became really mad as.the result of the experience, and the steward was compelled to take command." '