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AUSTRIAN PRISONERS PLIGHT

WORSE THAN NAPOLEON'S HUNGRY HORDES. The Kieffsk&ya Mysl, in describing the Austrian prisoners who are arriving at Kieff, an important Russian port on the Baltic, says :— " Their miserable appearance is far worse than the familiar traditional conditions of the hungry and frost-bitten hordes of Napoleon, when they fell back from Moscow. Few of them have an entire clothing outfit, and still fewer have warm overcoats. Most of them are in the rags of_ the unsuitable summer equipment with which they have had to face the winter campaign. It is pitiful to see these wretched soldiers, bent double with cold, trying to induce warmth into their benumbed hands by pressing them between their knees, their teeth chattering all the while. Some of them are wrapped in bright-coloured blankete of mixed patterns, which have evidently been taken from the housed of peasants. Others wrap their heads in women's shawls. More wretched still is the appearance of their footwear. Even those lucky ones who have preserved their original brown leather military boots display rags, and in some c&se* bare toes through them. Pieces of paper protrude from the boots, showing that the wearers have had to Use paper in the absence of socks. If this is tho condition of those lucky enough to have boots, what of the majority who have none ? Some have tied skirts round their feet; others have wrapped round women's blouses and under-garments. Others again use canvas bags, cotton woo], or rags from their own backs. Perhaps most pathetic of all are those who have a boot on one foot and a woman's red blouse or shirt-coat on the other. They look like anything but the regular soldiers of a modern army. ''It is interesting to learn that the Russians themselves consider the Germans a superior fighting force to the Aus» trianb The best German troops, they say, fight with great valour and stubbornness, and surrender with the utmost reluctance. They were somewhat exhausted towards the close of the Poland winter campaign, but did not. appear to be feeling the strain of war as much a« the Austrian^, who were, captured. The .Austrian officers captured by the Russians were, without exception, dispirited, and freely declared that th* empire of Austria-Hungary was in a most precarious condition on account of the war, and could not hold out much longer. Apparently the Germans have not yet realised tho inevitability of their" ulti* mate defeat. The pessimism of the Austrian officers has. of course, affected the morale of the men they are leading, and they surrendered very easily. In . on© month the Russians took captive over 25,000 Austrians, and in the majority of cases these mew fiuwendered without being compelled to do so by the condition* of war. A large number of them were Slavs who had been unwillingly forced into the fighting line, and who took the first opportunity of deserting or surreD» dering to their satural allies; but thou« sands of Austrians have surrendered simply because ♦Heir heart* are not in this war, and they see no reason, why they should go on fighting for Germanic ambitions. !n the latter stages of the campaign in Galicia the Russians had e< many Austrian prisoners that many c them were permitted to move abon practically unguarded. A civilian bj stander suggested to a Russian soldier that he should keep a stricter watch, oi the batch of prisoners he wae auppos-i' to g'lard. The soldier asked why. IVj might run away.' suggested the bj standcr. 'No, sir,' replied the soldi? 1 ■stolidly; 'they will not run away. T"lv do not wa»t to. 1 "

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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19150308.2.21

Bibliographic details

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 56, 8 March 1915, Page 2

Word Count
603

AUSTRIAN PRISONERS PLIGHT Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 56, 8 March 1915, Page 2

AUSTRIAN PRISONERS PLIGHT Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 56, 8 March 1915, Page 2