OTHER COUNTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 December 1918, Page 6

OTHER COUNTRY.

PRISONERS' STORIES. OF TERRIBLE TREATMENT. THE BLACK HOLE AT LILLE. . . Vjiidoii, Doc. 8. The majority of the Australians who SJ'flarriving at Ripon were captured at C»in.?cour!: } Fieurbaij:, and in minor en-Sagornent-s Cue parry real .shirting at Bremen when the armistice was signed. Tlic Soldiers' and \\ orkmen's Council immediately gave tbem passes into Holland and paid their railway {area. Another party sent from Sassnilz, via Copenhagen, to Leitu, were mostly engaged in coal heaving at Baltic ports. They downed tools when the armistice was signed, and were sent from Sassnitz. They received a cordial welcome at Copenhagen. the majority after being taken prisoner v.-ere compelled behind the lines within range of the Allied bheils until Juue 21. They were then removed, after an intimation from their captors that reprisals had been abndoned. The Australians state that, prior to their removal in June, Allied long range shell fire caused eleven casualties, including seven deaths, among a working party of British prisoner®, of whom four Australians were wounded. Signaller Hawkins, of the Stitli Battalion relates that between 1910, and March, 1017, British prisoners, including four Australians, . were kept at Queant for six weeks without a wask or change of clothes. The daily ration waa a quarter of a loaf and a litre of soup made from horso flesh and turnips. When removed to Ecowt in March only 80 were left. A number had died and the rest had taken Do Germairv eick [ind incupsw'iwtcd. London, Dec. 9. ■Some war prisoners givo horrifying details of the Black Hole of Lille. It wm a huge under-round cavern where 270 mc-n were confined fr five weeks in an unspeakable state o)J neglest, famine, and disease. They nad no clothing nor covering, except that in which they left the battlefield. They were only allowed in the upper air for ten minutes <lailj. Twenty were taken to hospital suffering from dysentery. The vermin had to be scraped off their clothing with knives. The place was not cleaned during the, five weeks. Tho food was so foul as to be uneatable. The men practically went mad and used to lie on the ground, ki.ling vermin and singing hymns. The men used to fight to reach a latticed window ten feet above the floor to gel air. Tho men wrro compelled to bathe their wounds villi cofi'ce.—A'.; 3. |N Z. Cable A'>oc.