IN LOVE WITH PRISONERS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 35, 11 February 1916, Page 4

IN LOVE WITH PRISONERS.

Disgust and indignation are expressed by Austrian newspapers because- of revelations made in connection with conditions at Imst and Sautens, where large numbers of Russian prisoners are held. Young girls and women, they assert, have fallen in love with Russians, big, handsome fellows, and are corresponding with them and meeting th*-m clandestinely. Every trick and ingenuity of feminity are resorted to in order to smuggle dainties to the Russians, so much so that the Government has taken the matter in hand and will in future keep the prisoners under such a strongguard that no wom«sn will be permitted to have access to the barracks. It is asserted the Eussian prisoners are a menace to the morals of the comniunitv.

On the other hand, the chaplain of the camp at Wenns, in a sermon in his

church, frankly declared that his observations have demonstrated that the Russian prisoners have in no wise encouraged the attentions of the young women, but that he must acknowledge with regret and disgust that young girls in his own school in the town were guilty of offences against modos?* ty and decorum in openly flaunting their affection for the Eussian soldiers. Physicians in the barracks also voice their indignation in thc newspapers. As a result no woman can now approach the camps, and any correspondence or dainties sent to the Eussians will be confiscated.