Cannibal Islanders

Manawatu Times, Volume XL, Issue 13949, 30 July 1918, Page 5

Cannibal Islanders

TALES THAT PRISONERS TOLD. [Aust. and N.Z. Cable Association.] (Received Monday, 10.5 p.m.) LONDON, July 29. Mr Philip Gibbs writes: The English, Australians, Canadians, and New Zealanders are sharing in raids with a, view to discovering the enemy dispositions and damaging his lines. Wo are talcing numerous prisoners and find that the Germans are being doped with stories of the brutal way in which the British treat prisoners. Even Germans of normal intelligence believed these fantastic allegations. As an example the New Zealanders brought prisoners from a raid, and wore amazed at the terror of the Germans, which only disappeared when they were well fed and kindly treated, as is the invariable custom. The Germans then confessed that their officers had said tho New Zealanders were cannibals who first offered cigarettes and then ate their prisoners. The New Zealanders noticed tho Germans at first refused the cigarettes. The Now Zealanders hugely enjoyed the joke at the expense of their reputation, though staggered by tho credulity of the German soldiers.