A GERMAN PRISONER.

Otaki Mail, Volume 26, 15 August 1919, Page 4

A GERMAN PRISONER.

FEARFUL EXPERIENCE OP A TE HORO BOY.

Among the returned soldiers present at the welcome home social at Te Horo on Wednesday night, was Mr Ronald Buchanan, an old Te Horo boy who returned to New Zealand a few weeks ago after a most extraordinary experience. : Mr Buchanan was one -of the New Zealand lads who was unfortunate to be captured 'by the Germans, during the strenuous lighting around Armcfiticres. He and some 200 others, were surrounded, and had to surrender. They were prisoners for nearly nine mouths, during which time they were .subjected to many hardships and suffered many discomforts. Mr Buchanan says that during the whole time they were half-starved, having only one meal a day. They were made to work hard all tiie time, being mostly engaged in currying shells and doing railway work. They were kept just behind the fighting lines, and, as the Allies advanced, the unfortunate prisoners were hurried back. During the whole of their imprisonment the soldiers were kept in total ignorance of how the war fared, and they could only guess how things were going by the German attacks. At l-he time of tlio Armistice they were •just over the German border, and live days after the Armistice was signed, they, received their liberty, after pasing. through a most trying experience. Air Buchanan naturally has no love for the Germans, and expresses himself very strongly about the inhuman treatment he and other prisoners received at the hands of the Hun soldiers. Mr Buchanan is at present spending a few days at Te Horo, now resides with his mother at Palmerston North.