HOME FROM GERMAN MARTYRDOM.

Taihape Daily Times, 7 November 1917, Page 2

HOME FROM GERMAN MARTYRDOM.

STORY OF ESCAPED HERO OF MONS. Happy, now. arc two British prisoners of war, who have arrived home at a British port. But it is a brutal story of the Germans that they have to tell, after escaping from the enemy prison camp at Minister. Lance-Corporal Ivane, Royal Scots, of Walsall, is one of them, and Corporal Thumpston, London Regiment, whose homo is in Peckham, is the other. One belongs to the old army, and the latter to the new. Both made unsuccessful attempts to escape some time ago. Kane was taken prisoner at Cambrai, in the retreat from Mons on Aug. 27. 1914. Thumpston was not made prisoner until Dec. 30, 1915, when he was wounded and buried by an exploded mine in the Hohenzollern Redoubt.

All the. German brutality of the early days of the war was experienced by Kane. At Sennelaeger Camp, where he wa: first interned, prisoners were illfed; ill-elothed, ill used, and verminous, and it was not until parcels arrived from England in April and May that any decent 'food was obtained. Every kind of punishment was meted out by the Germans for various small offences, besides ceils, with bread and water. Prisoners were tied to trees, an dhit with rifles. For refusing to work on munitions they were made to stand at attention for sixteen hours at n stretch, the slightest movement being punished with a blow fro ma sentry's rifle. For striking against work in coalmines they were given gymnastic exercises, and compelled to remain in painful r>ositions for a long period until it became exeruciatnig, and they were marched up and down with wearisome monotony in a space of 10 yards. Kane's best treatment was at Oostervag, where he worked for a fortnight on a farm. From Munster Camp, where he was interned later, he made two attempts to escape, each time in company with another. On the first occasion he was quickly seen and captured. The second time he and his comrade were caught by two sentries and a dog. Thumjston 's first attempt was on November 2S last in company with two Frenchmen. After several adventures they were seen in a village and chased by thre patrol dogs and a civilian and recaptured.

On June 29 last Kane and Thumpston got clear under cover of a storm, 'but were drenched to the skin. For six nights they were marching, lying in ambush by day, and the last mile to the frontier was covered in three hours were covered in three hours. Very narrow shaves they had on several occ: sions. Prisoners, they say, are most grateful to the British public for parcels. Things are very bad in Germany, and the population is suffering in silent despair. Both men are to go to the depots of their regiments, and in a short time they expect to be at the front again. In addition to Kane and Thumpston two officers have escaped from the horrors of the German camps. One is Captain A. J. Evans, the other is a grandson of Sir John Brunner, who told the story at Chertsey. Sir John ' said his grandson had been a prisoner ': in Germany for eighteen months and I two days. A lieutenant in the Flying ( Corps, he made five attempts to es- \ cape and the sixth time succeeded, his j companion being Captain A. J. Evans. | When they got away the journey occu- ! pied seventeen days. They never had above a score of potatoes each for the i last seven days. Many things were well learned by his grandson in Germany, ! one being to talk German, which he picked, up from a Prussian orderly. : and It was very fluent German, of ex treme strength, of excessive strength. So it struck them that they could get through more easily by talking their Prussian German loudly. They walked | through the villages talking German j aloud, and when stopped were taken j for Prussians.