MAJOR BACH.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 November 1917, Page 6

MAJOR BACH.

& TYPE OF THE UNSPEAKABLE HUN. ' GERMANY'S BLACK RECORD AT SENNELAGER.

|By Francis firibble in- the London Graphic), , .' The .Germans ihemscl es are now ashamed of their proceedingg at Sennelager; they are even thoroughly ashamed of them. They know that Major Bach, the commandant pf that internment camp, behaved as the very type of the Unspeakable Hun.;.. The* major himself knew it also; and there came a time when ho realised'that his name was in danger of becoming a byword, even in his own country, for bestial abuse of power. So when men began to be released from the camp, and allowed to return to their homes in Germany, he adopted measures which he hoped might shield his jeputation. To some of the departing prisoners he offered' his hand, genially asking them to make allowances for his difficulties and inexperience. Others he dismissed with the threat that, if they went about complaining of his treatment of them, they j Would be brought back and given an. other dose of it. To a certain extent, and for a cer- i tain time, the device succeeded. ' The American Ambassador doe's not seem to have known what was happening at Sennelager. Many of the. British "residents in Germany who did not happen ,to be taken there did not ,know. The vast majority of the German people did not know. But this general ignorance was gradually dissipated. ' The Sennelager men were eventually brought to Ruhleben, and told their stories to their fellow prisoners there. It may very well be that somt> of the German officers and soldiers—not all of wiom were enthusiastic admirers of Major Bachtalked also.

A DISGRACE TO GERMANY, At any rate, the thing gradually became a scandal, at which even a section of German opinion was shocked—either on moral grounds or because it feared reprisals on GermaV civilians interned in England. "I never heard ot these tilings," said a German reserve officer, to whom some of the stories were related within the barbed wjre of Ruhle|ben. "I find it difficult to believe them; tout, if they are true; they are a disgrace to Germany." And so it came about that the German authorities at 4ast set up a Court of Inquiry to investigate the matter. Whether their object was to punish the offenders or to whitewash them I have no means of knowing. The commissioners were certainly suave in their manner towards prisoners whom they invited to unfold their complaints and formulate their grievances. But the ■prisoners did not trust them, and begged to be excused from giving evidence. iPresumably they feared tjkMr elever cros»examination would lure them into contradicting each other; and'the feeling was doubtless general among them that the inquiry had better be postponed until the British Government was able to take charge of it. and insist that their persecutors should really be treated in accordance with their deserts,. Consequently the proceedings of the court were a complete fiasco;' arid its report, if it should issue one, will, be valueless, because it had no opportunity of hear-, ing the essential witnesses. For a long time, I believe, great tare was taken \that none of the essential witnesses should be allowed to return to England; but we have one with us now in the person of Mr. Henry C. Mahoney, who tells the whole Sennelager in a book entitled "Sixteen Months in Four German Prisons." » It is so outrageous a story that it may be felt to need some confirmation. Did not Mr. Mahoney dream these things? Has he n|Ot unduly exaggerated trivial annoyances? Such questions will inevitably oecjir to the more • cynical of his readers; and I am happily in a position to answer them. In so far as Mr. Mahoney relates purely personal adventures. I haye'nb means of 'checking his statements. was not present, for instance, when he engaged himself as a barber, though he had never previously shaved anyone but himself, in a Cologne shop, and so inadvertently shed German blood in torrents. I can only say that I have Jieard him tell that story before. ■'■

GERMANY'S "BLACK H01J5." Nor was I one ! of those who shared his experiences at Sennelager. But I have conversed with dozens of men. who did share them; and I know that the most sensational statements which he makes arc supported by r their unanimous testimony. Not a man among them would dispute the propriety of his description of the place as -Germany's Black Hole; and they were all agreed that Ruhleben at its worst—and Ruhleben at its worst was very >bad—was a paradise in comparison with Sennelager. Our men at .Sennelagei 1 were, deliberately starved at a time when food was plentiful in Germany. They were vexed with innumerable parades, and kept standing at attention for hours. While thus paraded they were insulted by Major Bach as "pig-dogs." tlold that Germany would "feed them from the pig-tub," while she proceeded to "swing England to her knees." They were not only fo-ced to work in barefaced defiance of The Hague Convention, but set to the most disgusting sa»ks and' compelled to execute them iirider the whip of the slave-driver. 1 ...

BACH'S FIENDISH METHODS. For the most trivial breaches of discipline they were punished by being tied to a post—a torture in comparison with which the infliction of the "double buckle?" on Captain Dreyfus, in Devil's' Island, was mild; and Major Bach not only stood by, jeering at the helpless victims of his ferocity, but encouraged women to walk over from the neighboring town |of Padertown to iharehis enjoyment of -the spectacle. He supplemented the torture by taking off the victims' hats, so that the fierce August sun might beat on their bare heads. On another occasion—on what Mr. Mahoney calls "the bloody night of September 11" —he drflve the men out of their barrack, and forced them to spend the night in a drenching rainstorm in an open field. Among the. prisoners were included some Grimsby fishermen whom the High Canal Fleet had gathered in in' default of any more valuable capture. Major Bach refused to believe that tficy had been on the North Sea merely for the innocent purpose of fishing. He insisted that they had been mine-laying, and he inflicted a punishment which, in England, would not be imposed even on a convicted criminal. ,i Mr. Mahoney is speaking of things | which he saw with his eyes:—"He (the 'Major) deoided to mark these unfor-

tunate hardened sea-salts in a distinguishing manner which was peculiarly his own, thereby rendering them conspicuous and possible of instant recognition, while, in the event of an escape being attempted, no difficulty would be experienced in identifying and catching the runaways. Each man was submitted to the indignity of having one half of his head shaved clean, one half of his moustache removed, orfone>halt of his beard cut away. The men branded in this manner presented a strange spectacle, and one which afforded Major Bach endless amusement. . Whether Major Bach committed the outrage on his own responsibility Or in compliance with instructions from a higher quarter is a question to be investigated in due course. It is an outrage which must on no account be slurred over because the victims were ■men of humble station. They were Englishmen and that suffices.