THE GERMAN NAVY

Evening Star, Issue 19583, 15 June 1927, Page 3

THE GERMAN NAVY

REASON FOR MUTINY DURING WAR

Amazing evidence about conditions m the German navy in 1917 was given recently before a Parliamentary Committee, which is investigating the mutinies which took place in that year (states the Berlin correspondent of the ‘ Daily Chronicle’). The witness was a stoker named Becker, who was sentenced to death for his share in the mutinies, but 'was subsequently reprieved. Bad food was the main cause of the mutiny, but Becker complained of the provocative actions of o(Beers. On one occasion, when 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? Ifor 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 said: “We 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 had 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 wore known in the fleet as_ “Olympic games.” They applied this term, ho explained, to the “ nonsensical deck exercises to which we were martyred. We have to shovel coal about while the officers drove us to try and make records.”- .