PRISONERS N GERMANY

Nelson Evening Mail, 26 May 1916, Page 7

PRISONERS N GERMANY

BRUTALITY OF CAPTORS. AN ESCAPEE'S STORY. After many thrilling adventures, three British prisoners of war arrived back in England recently from Germany, "where they had escaped from a camp. Two of these soldiers were Scots Guardsmen, named Private S. Beatie arid Private V. Howard, and the third •was Private J. Badams, Ist Royal Welsh Fusiliei's. The last-named, who is now at Wrexham Barracks, the headquarters of his regiment, has given a graphic account of his experiences during a captivity that lasted exactly 18 months, and of hairbreadth escapes from pursuers before he finally secured sanctuary.. Badams was captured, with a number of other Royal Welsh Fusiliers, on October 21, 1914, and during their four days' railway journey into the enemy's country the only food they had consisted of raw turnips, which the guard of the train had gathered for them from a. field during a halt. He confirms the statements of other escaped prisoners as to deliberate persecution and ill-treatment of British soldiers. 'One of the German officers, for instance, used to rush into their room, with an ugl look on his face, and brandish his sword. There was always a stampede for the windows, through which everybody would disappear in hot haste. The bread ration per day weighed about 7oz or Boz, served out in a loaf everv three days, but they used to eat it all on the iirst day.

This was Badams's second' escape. The first time he was recaptured, and he was punished with 14 days' confinement in a. small room, in which there were no fewer than 200 other British, prisoners, who were paying the penalty for refusing to work in a coal mine.

So dense was the crowd in this 1 limited area that they could could only lie down in turns. ' While they were ther" the German, commandant came in and asked them if they were willing to work. The reply was: "Yes; but it must be on the land." He then asked what objection they had to go .'nto a munition factory. ''l was one who replied," said Private Badams, "that we didn't want to i help in the manufacture of shells or of anything that was going to harm _ our fellow-countrymen. I know that British soldiers have been knocked unconscious and taken down a pit shaft, and when they regained consciousness there they were forced to work. The commander let us out, and I had to go with a working party on the land;, and: it was while I was on this work that my friends arid I planned and effected our escape. Asked to describe the fare now given to British prisoners, Private Badams said the "coffee" was made from burnt . barley and put through a coffee-grinder. The' food consisted of coarse rye bread, with carrots on one day and swedes on the next, which had evidently been cured after it had gone bad. '"...' .1 i He expressed the firm conviction that the people of the country were stervr itt°-, for the soldiers who guarded got no better food' than the prisoners. He had been shown letters to their wives, in which they wrote, } '*J or j God's sake, send us some food.' Ihere , seemed, to ibe a scarcity of'potatoes, as he saw none during the last five weeks j of his captivity.