HUNGRY SAILORS WATCH OFFICERS FEAST.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3380, 27 June 1927, Page 7

HUNGRY SAILORS WATCH OFFICERS FEAST.

Amazing evidence about conditions in the German Navy in 1917 was given today before a Parliamentary Committee, which is investigating the mutinies which took place in that year. The witness was a stoker named Becker, who was sentenced to death for his share in the mutinies, but subsequently reprieved. • . Bad food was the main cause of the mutiny, but Becker complained of the provocatjve actions o' officers. On one occasion, wh n his ship was in action, a deck officer came up to a man who was serving one of the guns and shouted, “What do you mean by going into action with a button missing ?” For this “crime” the gunner was placed under arrest for five days. “But whenever we put to sea for action against England,” said Becker, “everything was splendid, and the officers behaved as friendly comrades. That all changed, however, as soon as we were again in German waters.” With regard to the rationing, witness “We had had to look on while the officers feasted and acted wantonly. I have seen them throw sandwiches against the ship's side to see if they could make them stick. That was at a time when we Pad hardly got bread and bacon.’’ The feeling among the men rapidly got worse. One of the reasons was that, in spite of the bad and insufficient rations, the crews were again and again forced to take part in what were known in the fleet as “Olympic games.” They applied this terms, he explained, to the “nonsensical deck exercises to which we were martyred. We had to shovel coal about while the officers drove us to try and make records.”