AVOIDING WORK IN MINES

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24624, 21 July 1945, Page 8

AVOIDING WORK IN MINES

* N.Z. WAR PRISONERS’ RUSES . (P.A.) AUCKLAND, July 20. A remarkable story of the lengths to which New Zealand prisoners of war went to avoid solitary confinement and the hated work in coal and salt mines was told by Captain R. B. Beattie, of the Medical Coiqjs. who returned with the draft of repatriated prisoners of war to-day. In Stalag 18A, he said, there were always 10 to 15 men undergoing treatment for self-inflicted wounds. On three occasions he was approached by men with requests that he break one of their arms. One man was kept in hospital for 18 months with a leg sore which he stated would never heal. This particular man had a good reason for wanting to stay in hospital, as he had been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for having a radio. The Germans never knew how many men they had in each prison camp, and in Stalag 18A there were no fewer than 35 men in hiding whose presence was not known to the guards. One was an escapee from Graudenz, who remained hidden for three years. The Germans would have liked to catch him. as he had escaped when under sentence for inciting a mutiny. S.S. guards, said Captain Beattie, behaved with great brutality, and he had a constant fight with them over their attitude toward the sick.