The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 1916 FALSE CASUALTY RETURNS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 14, 19 April 1916, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 1916 FALSE CASUALTY RETURNS.

It is apparently so utterly impossible for a Germain public utterance or official return to bo truthful that no one need be surprised at the vain-glorious over-estimation of the number of prisoners captured, or at the ostrich-like i concealment of Germany’s real losses in battle. The total German casualties, according, of course, to a German message since the beginning of the war to the present time are only 2,700,000, including 682,000 killed. Not many weeks ago Mr H. J. Tennant, Under-Secretary for War, made a statement regarding the enemy’s losses, based on the official German casualty lists, and it was then pointed out that the figures fell far short of those .recorded by Mr Hilaire Belloc and other students of the war, and that the Gorman lists were always two or ‘three months behind time. Quite re-' cently Mr Warner Allen, special rep-, reseutative of the British Press with' the armies of France,' stated that lig | arcs had been placed at his disposal | which made it at leas-;, legitimate to regard with the gravest suspicion all information provided by the enemy as* to his losses. The French have many times found that the total German losses in killed, wounded, missing, and prisoners announced for a given regiment i during a given period arc considerably less than the number ol unsouers alone taken from that same regiment during the same time. Mr Allen's '■omp'dling statistics, with regard to four German regiments certainly boar this out. From positive' information it is known that the 108th

Regiment of the ]2lli German Army Corps lost during a certain period !()•! prisoners. The German casualty lis-tr. acknowledged during the same period 259 prisoners, and of these 28 ore not included in the French returns. There is a shortage, therefore, of 1 11 men, or 35.7 ner cent, of the total. Ihe

112th Regiment of the 11th German Army Corps lost 234 prisoners according to tflie French, but the German lists acknowledge only 48, of whom 34 do not figure in the French records. There is an omission of IS6, nr 79.4 per, cent, in this case. The Ti lth Regiment of the 16th Army Corps lest 9! ers, of whom only five figure 4n the German lists, and the other 89 men/or 94.6 of the total, are supposed by their misguided countrymen to be still fighting. whereas they are certainly ini French hands. The 153rd Regiment ofj the Fourth German Army Corps Jest. 196 prisoners, but the Germans dffi-j (daily acknowledged only 53 of these, of whom six are not named in the French returns. . Therefore, 138, or 70.4 per cent, of the 153rd, have been omitted frodfc the German returns as published for the benefit of the German people. It is, in face of such evidence, advisable not to place too much regard on German war statistics.