THE TERRIBLE TURK.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 March 1918, Page 6

THE TERRIBLE TURK.

PRISONERS' DREADFUL STORIES. HORRIBLE CRUELTY TO 9 ' WOUNDED. London, Feb. 2». An amazing instance of vitality and endurance is provided in the case of Lance-Corporal I'al (/Connor, 1508 of the 14th Battalion, who eame from Gippsland. O'Connor, Private J. Davern, 2474 of the Kith Battalion, an Irish West Australian, and Corporal A. Shoebridge, lU.i")li3 of a Wellington .New Zealand, Battalion, are the first prisoners who have arrived in London from Turkey. They were all engltged in the? attack on Anafarta, in 11115. When the Anzaca were forced to retire they were left lying on the field. O'Connor was crippled with a bullet wound in the ankle and another through the flesh above the knee. He was discovered by a Turk, who raised a heavy stone with which he bashed in O'Connor's forehead, smashing' Ida skull. When he awoke a German doctor was treating his wounds skilfully, and said that he would recover without losing bin leg. Then Turkish doctor* took the case over, and chloroformed him, apparently thinking that the easiest way was to amputate the leg. They neglected the dressings, and six operations on it wera necessary. Now only the stump is left. The terrible wounds in O'Connor's skull were not. skilfully treated, and the suppuration was allowed to run into his eyes. After twenty-two months a Turkish surgeon operated on him, and removed a section of his skull 3]in long and sewed up the flesh without planting new bone whore the old bone used to be. The wounds have now healed, and the only evidence of them are three deep scars and the indentation where the bone was removed. O'Connor is fat, rosy and happy, and it is difficult to believe the story of his sufferings coupled with his two and a-half years' bad food and other hardships. Shoebridge remarked that no other man in a million would have survived. He attributes O'Connor's recovery to his capacity to eat anything, to his determination, and bis temperament. Shoebridge was shot in the elbow and was taken with other New Zealanders from Gallipoli in a jolting cart. They stopped by the wayside, and an old Turkish woman came to the back of the cart and belabored both of them with a hcavv stick, killing Shoebridge's mate, who had received a bayonet wound in the stomach. His bodv was left bv the roadside.

Shoehridge was sent io a good hospital in Constantinople with Dnvern. but after a few davs he was told Ihat the British were ill-treating the Turkish prisoners, and as reprisals Shoobridge and others were sent to a building like a stable. The windows were boarded and it was dark. They were laid on a dirty floor with a blanket apiece. Their wounds were not attended to. Later they were sent, to various hospitals, in all of which the treatment and the food was wretched, the food consisting of bread, boiled wheat, and potatoes. Pavern. who was wminded in the leg. states that a German officer prevented the Turks killing him when they discovered him. after lying in agony all <' long, Tinder a blazing sun. Tlis clothes and boots were stolen. The bearera dumped the stretcher whenever a .shell was heard. The Turkish guards behaved brutally, often hitting the wounded in the hospital. Attendants were frequently callous of their sufferings. One Australian, goaded to desperation, struck an officer, and he was ordered to be beaten for ten days successively. He endured two whippincs, but his condition became so serious that he was not touched further. While in prison Davern saw many Turkish soldiers and civilians bastinadoed terribly. The British prisoners died like flies, and were buried without clothes or coffins in holes holding four. The condition of the prisoners from Kut was indescribable. At first he did not believe that they were British. Some wore only shirts, and were half-starved. The conditions described applv to the early days, and now are much improved. The Australians are unanimous in believing that the Turks hate the Germans like poison, and generally spit after passing a German in the street. The lower classes long to throw off the thraldom, but they are a spiritless, uncivilised, gutless mob. On Sundays the prisoners were permitted to walk five miles through Constantinople to rtnirch. They saw the ragged, starving people. Many of them were bootless, and the children were neglected. They received £4 a month from the American Consul, and then the Dutch Consul was permitted to buy them food. The prices were terrible. Two pounds of tea "cost £B. Butter was £3, and meat 7s. The former confidence in victory has disappeared, and the feeling towards the British is much more friendly. None of the three men share the Anzac idea that the Turk is not a bad r.ovt. and they echo Shoebridge's Temark that they would rather fight to the death anoter time than endure such imprison* inent.