NAZI ABOMINATION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 January 1940, Page 7

NAZI ABOMINATION

VILE TREATMENT OF BRITISH PRISONERS ON BOARD TANKER SUPPLY SHIP. SLAVE TRADE METHODS RECALLED. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright LONDON. January 19. Treatment reminiscent of the slave traders was meted out to the British merchantmen who were placed as prisoners aboard an unnamed tanker supply ship to the Admiral Graf Spee. According to first-hand stories, it is now revealed that the men were herded in overcrowded quarters. Their mattresses were covered with lice and there was a ration of verminous water of a quart daily. Both drinking and washing was done in one period. There were several hundred prisoners aboard and only 20 bowls for the use of the masters, officers and white and Lascar crews. No soap was provided and food was scarce. Bad eating utensils, improvised from old condensed milk tins, were provided, and excise in fresh air was limited to 75 minutes daily if the weather was good. Smoking was strictly prohibited in the first fortnight, after which it was strictly limited. Anyone smoking at an unauthorised time or place was sentenced to three days' solitary confinement in a cell the size of a locker on bread and water.

The organisation of the prisoners’ life was based on concentration camp methods. The German captain, a ruthless Nazi with marked political bias, was a striking contrast to the Graf Spec’s captain. Deliberate steps were taken to humiliate the British officers in front of their crews, particularly the Lascars.

Machine-guns posted at vantage points and manned day and night continually covered the prisoners. , It is believed that at least 300 prisoners arc still aboard the tanker, for which British warships are hunting through the Atlantic. It is understood some of her prisoners were transferred to the Graf Spec and subsequently put ashore at Montevideo.