PRISONERS FREED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22743, 1 June 1937, Page 9

PRISONERS FREED

FOEEIGN VOLUNTEERS ILL-TREATMENT BY REBELS ALLEGATIONS OF CRUELTY By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received May 31, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON. May 30 The Times' correspondent at Bordeaux states that foreign ex-militia-men released by General Franco, totalling 45 and including 23 Britons, have entered France. One was an Englishman who was captured at Talavera, where 510 men of his battalion of 600 were killed. "I'd like to push that lie down the throat of whoever said it!" said Bert Levy, a Canadian who was one of tho group of British prisoners, when questioned about a rebel statement that the prisoners were well treated. Levy continued: ""We were practically starved. We were covered with vermin and had no water to clean ourselves. We were forced to sleep on the ground. Ten of my comrades died of lung trouble." A Frenchman captured in the Madrid fighting said: "I lay for months in a filthy prison and was constantly maltreated. An officer entered every night and took out men to lie shot, then buried, by a fatigue party. "We were mustered in tho prison yard a week ago while General Franco's brother braggingly extolled Fascism and announced our early liberation. We did not believe him because men had been taken out and shot the same night, as usual. "However, two days later, we were crammed into cars and taken to a Salamanca prison, where, with other captives, we were filmed and forced to say before a microphone, 'We become l£ascists,' and to cheer for tho rebel cause. "Apparently we were liberated on the instructions of the Italian Fascist Propaganda Committee." Other accounts corroborate the Frenchman's story. A message from St. Jean de Luz says that the German aviators SchulzePlanck and Kienzle, who have been freed by the Basques in exchange for Russian airmen, arrived on board the French gunboat Audacieuse. FRENCH PILOT'S STORY SHOT DOWN BY GERMANS ATTEMPT AT BRIBERY ALLEGED BILBAO. May 30 The French pilot Galli, whose Britishmade aeroplane, carrying mails and five passengers on a regular commercial air route, was shot down by German fighting machines on Wednesday nine miles from Bilbao, stated that before leaving France an airman had met him and said: "My bosses don't want this line run. They offer you £3OOO to stage a forced landing at San Sebastian. You and your passengers will be taken prisoner, but the authorities will treat you well and quietly exchange you for prisoners in the hands of the Spanish Government." Galli refused, whereupon he was told: "Well, you will be shot down, as the insurgents are determined to prevent the line running."