AN UNCENSORED LETTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15884, 3 April 1915, Page 2 (Supplement)

AN UNCENSORED LETTER.

ASSAULTED BRITISH SOLDIERS

PRISONERS' HARD LOT.

The following uncensored letter has arrived "in England from a British sold.er in Germany. It tells its own story :- " Erfurt (Germany).

••Whether you will get this letter I cannot say, but I am writing in hopes, please God, that you will. -As for myself, I am fairly well, but, oh'to think what we have had to put up with from the Germans, they are so dead against us English. We are very uncomfortable, very little food, no bed;. tact, many a dog haa a better home. " U 6 a.m. we get coffee or chicory. It contains no sugar nor milk. With the coffee we eat some dry bread if we have any left from overnight. At 4 p.m. we get lib of bread made with 25 per cent, of potato. This is to last 24 hours, but nearly all of us eat it as soon as we get it. Dinner is at 11.30, and wo receive stewed carrots and potatoes. For tea thin boiled rice is served out. Meat is out of [the question, but at times as a meat delicacy (?) we may get some dog's meat, and very little of that. " I fervently hope we shall not be kept here long, because several have died from diphtheria and other diseases. I must say that the Germans are a bad lot, and for a certainty they will have a lot to answer for on account of their brutality. " My mate got wounded, and probably he thinks I was killed. The photo, you sent me I gave to him to take care of, as he was returning to England. I am sorry to say it is covered with clay, and lias been damaged through rain, as I was obliged to lie on wet ground. He was very fortunate in fliat the bullet pierced a hole right through a purse in his pocket, and then entered his thigh. But for the purse it might have proved a fatal wound. Struck and Kicked. " He and I left the trench together, but ' as soon as the Germans saw us they rained shot and shell upon us. I ran a l'ttle way, then down on to the grond, crawling on my hands and knees and stomach—up again, and so on until I was completely exhausted. The Germans had several shots at me from 50 to 60 yards' range, but I kept bobbing up and down, and eventually got safely away, thank God. " I fought with our regiment at Mons and at two other places, and then, in the Aisne district, I was captured. I felt sure that we would bo shot, as they called us English swine, poked at us with the bayonet, kicked us, and nearly knocked one poor fellow's eye out with the butt-end of the rifle. One or two other English prisoners joined tus later, who had been knocked about badly with bottles, etc. "We were put in a church one night, where one mad German devil struck one of our chaps in the mouth with his fist, loosening his teeth, and cutting his mouth badly. Our chap looked like hitting him back when the German brought his revolver out and several other Germans their bayonets. Of course, they knew that we. were not armed, the cowards! " I may say that when we captured some Germans we gave them the last bit of food we had in our haversacks, also tobacco, , and treated them .well. I can swear before God that this is the truth. "The Germans do not like us—we are too clever for them. I think it will take some time to beat them, because they are so numerous, and they are still getting , more soldiers ready to send to the front. We hear that they are short of money, I but they seem determined, and will do their uttermost to win."