THE BARBAROUS GERMAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16823, 13 April 1918, Page 8

THE BARBAROUS GERMAN.

;i HIISONERS ILL-TREATED. j : '; UNASSAILABLE EVIDENGE. ' (Received 7.15 p.m.) X and N.Z-Reutor. LONDON. April 11. ; - Mr. Justico Younger's Committeo, which " 5s inquiring into the German treatment of ' prisoners of war behind the lines, has issued a report which says tho British and German Governments agreed a year ago not to employ prisoners within thirty kilometres of tho firing line, but the Germans continuously broke the agreement, whereas the British observed it in letter mid spirit. Tho Germans employed British prisoners of war at work at Cambrai and Lille, under pain of death. Many were killed and wounded by British guns, and many died of starvation and overwork. A private who was starving fell out of the line in order to pick up a morsel of bread lying on the roadtide. Ho was shot and killed by a guard. ) The committee has secured a great amount of incontrovertible evidence confirming stories of ill-treatment, including scantiness of rations, cruelty, inadequate lodgings, absenco of fires in winter, and insanitary conditions. The report declares that tho amount of preventable suffering can hardly bo exaggerated. Hie intolerable record of calculated ill-treat-ment will send a shiver throughout the civilised world, and steel the heart of every Briton never to rest until this race pf savago beasts is crushed.