A GRIM STORY.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 May 1919, Page 4

A GRIM STORY.

BRUTAL GERMAN TREATMENT. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. After being for eight months n prisoner in the hands of the Germans, Private A. E. Morris, of the N.Z.E.F., a Wellington boy, was released on the signing of the armistice in November last, and has now returned to his home_ He tells a grim story of brutal ill-treat-ment at the hands of the Germans, who forced hira and many other prisoners to work under shocking conditions close behind the German lines under the fire of the British guns. Private Morris was captured on April 16, 1918, with other members of the New Zealand entrenching battalion. His unit had been hurried to the front at the time when the British armies were falling back before the crroiU German offensive, and it was surrounded and cut off by the advancing, enemy. Morris was kept working behind the lines ion nn ammunition dump unloading ammunition traifis iind loading lorries for the ring line, and with others ivns frequently worked air day without food- A part of the time the men were kept during the night in a shed with a concrete floor without bedding. The men became physical wrecks, and' ojio. committed suicide with a German bomb. Litter Morris and others were kept in the! "Block Hole of Lille." They were there six weeks, 350 men being in a room (10ft. bv 20ft., again without bedding. When the Allied advance began the men wero marched back from point to point. There were signs that the spirit of the Germans was being broken, hut the situation of the prisoners was relioved only by the Belgians, whose kindness and Konerositv never failed. When news of the armistice arrived the prisoners were told they would be sent home, but they did not wait. for German permission They loft their prison quarters that nisrht and, with the assistance of sympathisers, made their way to Brussels,