A CRUEL FOE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 237, 16 March 1915, Page 6

A CRUEL FOE.

I'Rl-DXICItS IX GERMANY. ♦ Tl'.i! Paris Temps states that all the women and children of .Vlarchevillo (a Biimil villa}?! of tlic ileiise) and of the neighboring hamlets were made! prisoncY'.i (ill (k-tober ill. Three letters, which w«ro written on d.'fl'eront dates, show that the;/ arc in Bavaria. It appears that lißo women and children arc, living in a barn. They state that the fact that they all know each other is sonw consolation in their misery. They complain greatly of tli<! cold, for they were not allowed io take away with them any warm clothes. A 'French doctor, who was made prisoner by the {.'ermans near Arras, suffered a lona; and 'harsh captivity in a lamp on tin.' shores of the l!altic_ where ho was kept two months, despite the Geneva Convention. I!e write;: "1 willi eight other doctors, who, like myself, had vainly protested, shared a tent in which the only coijifort was a little straw scattered on the ground. We were, however, given two blankets of a sort. .This wa.s our condition for e\actly fifty-eight days, and during that time, we, were unable to undress. We were given no pay, in spite of the convention agreed to by Germany at The Hague. We were allowed to get our food from the canteen when wo were able to pay for it with our own money. In this camp I saw the most lamentable sights—soldier-prisoners, lying on meagre supply of straw, ill-protected by linen tent-, and they receive I in food onlv 2ofl gramme* of bread, a, little coll'ce, and a small quantity of soup twice a day. Shortly after we armed we saw an old man beaten unmercifully by (,'orman soldiers. They were so .violent t!|flt he died til!! ne>:t day. One o£ the civilians showed me he; wou:ii!«;I hand. When arrested an od'eer had ordered him to put up his hnivh: then, in cold b!ood he deliberate!" shot through one with a revolver, and then turned h : s back on his victim without a word. "There were in ik!; camp the whole male poimhii ion of several' vi!!;!«o< of the north of France boys of 12 and JS m::l old i:n. of 7-1. In one case an old man in ill-health begced these brutes to take mt" on him, as he was 70 years of a 1 ;"; 1 , but the German soldiers merely jecre! at hi-; misfortune. If you I'olnte:I out to fliem the absurdity of tailing children mid old men. they merely shook their bend, saying, 'Free-shooters, freeshooters.' '"I lie j'.nglisli in our camp were given the heaviest of tasks to do. They were allowed soup only once instead of twice a day. An officer captured at D:\-nmde iold us that he had seen Germans going into an ambulance and forcing into a, line "wounded and shooting I hem. Among tile officers shot dead was a. chaplain and a doctor. Most of the prisoners in the canrp are civilians. Of the fill)!) here barely 1100 have been under arms. •< ''At last we eight were released, lmt when we asked to have our property that had been taken away returned to us. shit,big that we were medical men and non-combatants, they jeered at us. The. German military authorities also ignored the appeal."