GERMAN CRUELTIES
PRISONERS.
ΤΟ
TERRIBLE INDICTMENT. HALF-STARVED AND WHIPPED.
The Government Committee on the treatment by the enemy of British
THE HONGKONG DAILY PRESS, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20TH, - 1818.
BLUFFING THE WHOLE
WORLD
· DESPERATE STATE OF AFFAIRS”
IN GERMANY,
The vegetable and fruit departments of London stores are an immensely valuable, contribution to the national health. Se great was my craving for green vegetables at Rubleben that I willingly paid 128. for
FAT PURSES AND EMPTY STOMACHS. | a fresh cabbage, which was only obtained
fur EBNEST LOSEL PYKE J
are fulle
The money which fills the purses is made either of paper or iron. Gold is almost unknown, though the hoarding habits of the Germans have probably resulted in more having been concealed than has been
e case in England..
the
The great paradox of Germany to-day prisoners of war have issued a report is that while stomachs are empty purses on the detention and employment by the German armies behind their firing line in Belgium and France of British soldiers captured on the Western front. The report constitutes yet another count in the long indictment of German cruelty and inhumanity. In the words of Sir Robert Younger, chairman of the Committee, the treatment brought upon the prisoners an amount of unjusti. fable suffering for which warillel would be hard to find in the history, tragio in su many of its incidents as that history le béen, of the treatment by
During the last few months silver has the enemy of their prisoners during the been withdrawn from circulation and is red now no longer legal tender. So long as there is any paper in Germany the Goy crnment will multiply money as they are doing at present, and will fill the workers' pockets to repletion.
war
The Compiliço, in their survey of evidence dealt with in this report, have failed to and a trace even of lip service either to the obligations (Hague Coo vention) to solemnly undertaken by the German Government in time of peace for regulating their conduct in time of war or to the principles, of the war book which that Government professed as their
There is no doubt in the minds of the Committee that as early as August, 1915, the German command were systematic ally employing British and other prison ers in forced labour behind the western firing line, thereby deliberately exposing them to the fire of the Allied armies This fact has always been studiously concealed by the German Government. Their characteristic excuse that it was a reprisal for German prisoners being kept less than 30 kilometres behind the British firing zone would, even if to any extent well founded, e no justification for the calculated brutality of the so- called reprisals, but in truth the excuse itself will not bear investigation.
**RETRIBALS** BEFORE THE OFFENCE,
In January, 1917, the German Govern ment affirmed that in French and Bel gian territorica occupied by German troops no British prisoners of war had been detained for any considerable time with the exception of sick and wounded undergoing hospital trentment and pris oners emplored in hospital services The Committee characterise this state aught as gulo anfounded, and state that prisoners in great Kumbers had already -for months been detained at work in medintely bohund the German lines, de spite the agizonent concluded with the Germino. Gövlinment in April last that prisoner, should not be employed within 30 kilometres of the firing line: The German command continued without in- formasions to employ their British prisoners under these inhuman con- ditions, certainly until the end of 1917. It may be even until now.
To illustrate the specious nature of the Germinn exeune the Committee refer to German official documents giving detailed descriptions of reprisals alleged to be in contemplation because of it. It
That there must still be some gold about is proved by the fact that the Army offers to any soldier presenting a 20-mask gold piece (normally about the same value as our sovereign) the equivalent in paper and two days leave.
mark, the equivalent of our shilling In Berlin the smallest paper money is That is low enough, but just outside che mums down to 2d. of our money. capital, at Spandau, there are notes for
did not tumble to the situation and were At first the working classes in Germany very cock-a-hoop about the fat fortunes they were making. But when they found that money bought nothing they grew angry. There was a Berlin workman who came to repair the cement floor in the kitchen, at Rubleben, a math who wan what you do not often find in Germany a character, something out of the ordin ury. He did not mineo watters in speak 15g of the German Government, from the user downwards, and bad already suf- fered two periods of imprisonment for opening his mouth too wide, Natha
as a great favour, and 4s 6d, a pound for Brussels sprouts. Oranges, which ap- pear to be as plentiful in London estab lishments today as in peace time, are absolutely unknown in Germany, Lemons are also unknown. So are bananas. Nuts, too, are unobtainable. In fact, the only fruits that one can get are a few costly apples and pones. Even cherries, which in the days of peace grew almost wild on the German roads, did not rescla Berlin in the season. Either there was no labour to pick them or they were stolen by local inhabitants.
I was telling someone yesterday of the soap famine in Germany, and, in reply, my friend presented the view of English people that the Germans do not use mape They certainly do not use it now, because soup has absolutely disappeared; would be willingly paid for a cake of ordinary toilet soup if it could be got.
soap substitute was invented, which, however, had the double effect of destroy-
all over Germany. It is not an actuat ing the skin and blocking the drain pipes. Shaving without soap is
HOW necessity privation, but is one of the myriads of daily annoyances that are causing the cry for peace. Bathing and laving without would not Soap are irksome. That alone, however, for peace, but when you start the day
make with a soapless shave, a breakfast of boiled potatoes without salt (for there is aalt famine), washed down by a bitter preparation of burned aceras called
nation
coffee and set out on a day full of. euch privations and annoyances, the whole monotonous programme has a very great effect on the will power and stamina of the people.
The political and business considera- tions which are causing a cry for peaco I must deal with Inter on." They also are Look here," he said to me one day, great. Many of the big German business producing a thick wad of paper moneymen see nothing but ruin ahead. "I have got all this, but look at these --exhibiting a small and unappetising piece of sausage and some of the black wretched foot by depriving my wife of var hread" and I have only got this her share.
a nutshell. This man had abundance of Here you have the German situation in money and if food had been procutable he could have got it, but, on the other hand, he did not have sufficient bread or sausage to enable him properly to carry on a day's work, Never, indeed, have 1 seen a stover worker. It took him three werks to lay down a small cement floor, and no gooner was the work done than it rurabled to pieces by reason of the weak, ness of the cement, which, like all other interials, is suffering from war condi- tions:
SEARCHING COMB-OUT.
SUFFERING CHILDREN
To people with children the situation is chemist's shop at Charlottenburg, the heart-breaking. I was one day is Mayfair of Berlin, buying a tooth brush when I noticed a pathetic scene. (for tooth-brushes are still to bé. hud), between a well-dressed woman and a salesman. The customer asked with anxiety, Hove you yet got that tin of condes for my stek child?" "I
I have not able to get it, madame, was the reply. She entreated him to get it and left the shop weeping. That scene is taking place everywhere every day in Germany almost felt inclined to "find out who the woman was and send her some from my own parcels, but of courso did not do es because our parcels are not sent to Ges- many in order to comfort the enemy,"
Those British parcels are well-knowi and I suppose they have been the subject from one end of Germany to the other, of thousands of curious questions and in- vestigations. S
action with gard to the war is a specks The average German, whose every of camouflage with which to foil his enemy, believes that people at home send these parcels to Germany to deceive the Germans as to our food position
so happens that these descriptions trasse, the one being the best p
The Germans are taught by their Gov ernment-controlled Press tant every con severe here. During the strike in Ger dition of affairs in Germany is equally many the German newspapers bad as counts of strikes in England. During the focd riots in Germany they published stories of food riots in England.
The richnest and variety parcels baffles the Germany, though let of our food me say that these parcels are essential to the welfare of the British military and vivilian prisoners in Germany und must be continued or even increased.
visible even at Ruhleben. When we were
The position of German ma
man-power is first there we had quite a fine body of men to guard us. These disappeared to one or other of the various fronts and have been succeeded by decrepit old men dressed in civilian costume, with rifle and side arts. The comb out in Germany bae been five or six fold as thorough as the
here,
as can be gathered by Unter den Linden or in substantial accord with the treatment social street and the other the best biti that had been in regular operation for mess thoroughfare, in Berlin, similar to months before either the threat or the our Pull-mall and Cheapside respectively so-called excuse for it. As a typical Whereas young men are to be seen here example the Committee give a transcript one are to be found in Berlin. Middle of the notice handed to a British non-aged men, tou, are rare All are relist “commissioned officer to be read out to ing others for work in Flanders. his fellow-prisoners at Lille Inst April: The grading of invalid civilians or Upon the German request to with-wounded, soldiers is very carefully done draw German prisoners of war to a dis- A one-armed man is given a one artued tance of not less than 30 kilometres from man's job. Exemptions from military the front line the British Government service on grounds of health are far more has not replied. Therefore it has been difficult to obtain than in England. The I see no chance of the German food decided that all prisoners of war who original guards at Ruhleben were medic situation becoming better, and as it be are captured in future will be kept as ally examined again and again and comes wors so will the wretched supply prisoners of respite-very short of food, again, and in the end all vanished. dealt out to British prisoners in Germany bad lighting, bad lodgings, no beds, and I should say that, speaking generally, hard work beside the German guns the economic and man power situations in under heavy shell fire; no pay, no soap | Germany are five or six times as acute for washing or shaving, no towels, or as those of Great Britain. I have only boots, etc.ARA
been in England twelve days, and perhaps "The English prisoners of respite are
I may not therefore be able to judge; but, all to write to their relations or persons comparing the shop windows and the of influence in England how badly they the food supply and the man-power are, streets of London with those of Berlin, are treated, and that no alteration in I should say, relatively as indicate. the ill-treatment will occur until the English Government has consented to the don stores yesterday. It was a revelation My belief is unshaken that it is the German request. It is therefore, in the to me both as to the quantity of the food cry this reckless, throwing away of life interest of all English prisoners of supply and as to the class of article which
the German stomach that is caus respite to do their best to enable the people are buying in the fish depart on the Somme,
ing German Government to remove all Engment there was probably more fish than lich prisoners of respite to camps in comes into Berlin in any one day, except Germany where they will be properly for some of the courser fish from the treated with good food and good cloth Baltic ing, and you will succeed by writing as mentioned above, and then surely the partment and thought of Berlin, where I passed into the cigar and tobacco de- English Governmcat will consent to cigars and tobacco are rationed, and the Germany's request for the sake of their shops selling them are only able to open
for two hours. day.
own countrymen.
You will be supplied with postcard, notepaper, and envelope, and all this cor respondence, in which you explain your hardships, will be sent as express mail to England."
HALF-STARVING AUSTRALIAN BROT, That document (the Committee observe) cortainly did not err on the side of ever
become less and less, and so will they be come more and more dependent upon. parcels from home. *
I notice that Mr. Wile, in his interest- ng article in The Daily Mail yesterday, suggests that it is the coming of the Ame ricans into the war that has forced the German Government's hand to make the present great offensive in France. another article. I will tell exactly what the
I walked through one of the great Lonan think of the American in
..:
of
the
and
best part of four years without produc You "cannot half-starve n nation for
ing an immense effect upon its moral, the question of Germany's position in the land victories but on whether it is pos war depends, in my opinion, not upon het sible for her to hold out until she obtains relief from the territories which she had conquered, if there is any such relief available in these regións. None of her conquests have to far supplied the Ger Both are bereft of raw material. man larder or the German factory.
of bread. He was shot and killed by the guard. The frequent erusity of the compare Germany to a vast mass of guards is a matter constantly referred inflammable material which, if the war to by witnesses. Onc spoke of a German and its privations continue, will one day sergeant using a dog-whip on men slowle ignited by some spark of Bolshevian in getting out to work owing to weak that will be beyond
The power of her ness.
rulers to extinguish. That the Germani Government shares this view is obvious
fear lest Bolshevist propaganda
statement any prisoners were killed As late as November last there were he be introduced into their country
by the British gans, more were wounded, at Limburg-am-Laten undelivered he death from starvation and overwork tween 19,000 and 20,000 parcels for was demonstrated by the fact that in the were constant. In one instance last May British prisoners of war on the German British or French shell burst among a Western front, despite the Anglo-German number of British and French prisoners agreement of the previous July. working belund the lines in Belgium.. Seven were killed and four wounded. The report includes extracts from a The men were half starved Twe who mass of evidence regarding the suffer weighed 13. stone when captured lost five ings of prisoners. These speak of the stone Parcels were kept back, and in brutality of the Germans, of prisoners consequence men were famished Such dying from starvation and exposure, was their hunger that they picked for their clothes reduced to rags, food potato peelings that had beca were in a verminous condition, and some trampled under foot. An Australian, who were conveyed to the German camp. half starving, fell out to pick up a piece were so famished that two died of eating the food given them. The Committed are (Continued at fort of next Column) preparing a report on the Eastern front,
an
Brest-Litovsk treaty was laid down the stipulation that no propaganda
should enter Germany me and sy Gloomy folk who come to me and say that the Germans have driven us out of Bapaume and are nearing Amiens do not seem to visualise the German side of the situation, which presents the spectacle of hungry, depressed, ill, and uncomfort able nation longing for peace and, so far as the
pre concerned, peace at any price
If John Bull and the Allies hold on they will get their own terms. Of that I am eonvinced.
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