HOCH DER LAGER.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 319, 22 October 1915, Page 3

HOCH DER LAGER.

GERMAN CAPTIVES FOUND DRUNK. * EASTERN ARMIES DEPRESSED. Prof. Bernard Pares, the British official “Eye-Witness” with the Russian armies, who is in London now, in a summary of his impressions of the campaign in the East, says: “German troops were brutal, arrogant, and often drunk. German prisoners, unlike Austrians, were found so hopelessly intoxicated that they were not sober 24 hours after their capture. On the other hand I can say with certainty that there is not one case of drunkenness in the whole Russian army. The drink that the Germans often deliberately leave when they evacuate a town is thrown into the gutters. “Both the Germans and Austrians are in a chronic condition of depression. They manifested the first symptoms cf this, it is hardly credible, but nevertheless true, after their great successes in Galicia. They somehow realised then, as they realise more than eaer now, in spite of any temporary advantage, that they cannot win unless we choose to lose. “The war in Poland has revealed Germany at her beastliest and Russia at her best. I say deliberately and emphatically that on, the whole of the Russian front —and 1 could go where I liked and talk to who I liked —I have not seen or heard of anything bruta 1 or beastly done by Russian troops. They have fought most humanely, in this war almost too humanely. “I sometimes think that quite apart from the enthuwsiasm with which the Slav populations, Poles, Czechs, and Ruthenians, greeted their appearance on Austrians soil, the fact must be recorded that a large number of Austrian civilians voluntarily accompanied the Russians when the latter were forced to retire.

“Not only do they treat wounded German or Austrian prisoners as well as their own people, but they often actually treat them better. I had many personal illustrations of this and of the manner in which the sulkiness of the German captive was soon worn

down by the sheer kindness of hsi Rus-* slan attendants. Tjheir Slav prisoners are treated with the greatest tolerance, and often may be seen walking: with perfect freedom in the streets. “When I left the Third Army in Galicia at the end of June the Germans were 50 miles south of Lublin. They took a month to get there, and that’s net bad work for the Russians. When, we retreated from Gorlice they took, precious good care not to press up too much. On one occasion a Russian corps of 6.000 men, hampered thought they were by lack of adequate artillery and munitions, actually took 7,000 prisoners more than they themselves.”