ANOTHER WITTENBERG.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16287, 21 July 1916, Page 8

ANOTHER WITTENBERG.

TYPHUS PATIENTS DESERTED

STORY OF STEXDAL CAMP

FRENCH DOCTOR'S STATEMENT.

The experiences of Dr. R-ibadeau-Dumas, a French physician, in two German prison camps, are recorded in the current number of the British Medical Journal in an article that recalls the scandalous conduct of the German authorities during the typhus epidemic at Wittenberg. After a period of detention at Altenjrrabow, Dr. Ribadeau-Dumas was sent, with other doctors—French and Russian— February 8, 1915, to Stendal. There the prisoners were persecuted in all sorts of ways. The state of things was so bad that the higher authorities seem in have become alarmed, and an order was issued enjoining prudence on those" wt charge of camps, as " too severe treatrcrf.-nt inflicted on the prisoners was likely to tarnish the good name of Germans among neutrals." In consequence, some of the *fncers strove to undo the evil effects of the previous reign of terror.

Typhus broke cut, and the Germans fled, leaving the French and Russian doctors with the sir within a barbed-wire enclosure, where the conditions were most unfavourable. Several of the medical men fell victims to the criminal want of forethought of those in charge of the camp- The Government was moved to take action only when the disease began to spread among its own people. Then isolation huts were built, disinfectors and baths set up, and, by way of throwing dust in the eyes of the " public, antityphoid inoculations were carried out on a large scale. At Stendal the staple ration was what was called potato soup, a filthy decoction with herring heads floating in it, and smelling of rotten fish, which the verv dogs howled at. Miserable as the food was, the prisoners fought for it. Parcels sent from home were opened and the contents stolen. Punishments in the form of blows, kicks, and short commons were showered on the prisoners: the doctors were placed under arrest without any reason assigned ; some were confined to* their rooms for months. The Germans doctors were, as a rule, rough, sometimes brutal, in their manners; they physicked the patients at haphazard; some were grossly ignorant. Wounds were stitched up with a mattress needle and unasepticisedi thread. The surgeons did not wash their hands.

Dr. Ribadeau-Dumas complains bitterly of the utter neglect with which the sick prisoners were treated. Inspections were a farce. Once they saw a general, to whom they were allowed to speak, but after listening to the recital of their woes, be said that that kind of thins did not concern him, and walked away. At Altengrabow, in reply to some complaint, another general merely called them "snares gochons." These are the only occasions on which they had any relations with the hisher Herman authorities. The neutral inspectors they never saw. One day the French prisoners refused the sour>. which was unusual! v bad. They were made to stand motionless in two rows for a couple of hours; they were then placed in a barbed-wire enclosure with some 60 prisoners from Wittenberg suspected of typhus. Of many of the worst things Dr. Ribadeau-Dumas says that he cannot bring himself to write.

DEAD" MAN RETURNS

PREDICAMENT OF WAR "WIDOW."

A lady resident of tho seaside town of Granville, England, lost her husband among the first engagements of the war. The official account of his death stated that he had been blown to pieces, and • that nothing more had been found than his right arm, picked up on the field of battle, with identification disc still attached to the wrist. In course of time the widow remarried. Recently she was astounded to receive a letter from her first husband, telling her mat he had been all this time in Germany among the badly wounded, and that, as a permanently disabled man, he was about to be exchanged. The poor woman has been prostrate, since the arrival of the letter, and her second husband is vainly endeavouring to obtain some official reassurance as to his position. SAILORS' WINDFALL. MILLIONS OF PRIZE MOXE} Answering Lord Beresford, in the House of Lords recently, the Duke of Devonshire said the prize money in the hands of the \ ??$Xi UI V ,O jS- 4 1 . 0 Ma >' 10 amounted' to £4,420,222. In addition, there was money 111 the hands of the Indian and Colonial Governments. On account of various difficulties it would not be possible to distribute the prize money until after the war The Government has the full use of this money and was utilising it in the best possible way. The number of enernv ships detained in Home and colonial p<, rlji v -' ls over 200. These ships were bein ■■, where possible usefully employed, and no money which they earned as freight would be paid to the enemy after the war.