TORTURE OF PRISONERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16890, 30 December 1916, Page 12

TORTURE OF PRISONERS

GERMAN METHODS EXPOSED. FRENCH OFFICIAL REPORT. (By the Paris Correspondent of tho Daily Telegraph). T have been favoured with an advance of the French Government's official report on "Tho Treatment of Prisoners of War in Franco and in Germany wth heir ard to International Conventions, which will shortly bo published in all Allied and neutral countries. Over and abovo tho oracial imprimatur of tho French Government, tho preface gives authority to tho book. It is by M. Louis Renault, Professor of International Law at tho Paris faculty of Law, member of the permanent Arbitration Oourt of Hie liugiie, and probably the best known living exponent of the rights of nations. It is enough to quote from his preface merely this passage: "All reasonable forecasts" (regarding treatment of prisoners of war) "have been proved false by facts to an extraordinary extent, as v.-ili be only too well seen by the present volume, which will be read with sadness by all who believe in justice and in tho sanctity of promises, and who arc coropelled to note that the most binding international undertakings have been violated and tho most elementary exigencies of humanity spurned." ..... • . , Tho official report is divioeu into eight, chapters—riz.: Capture of Prisoners; Treatment of Officers; Prisoners'_ Keen; Correspondence ; Hygiene; Discipline; Prisoners' Labour and Return of Prisoners. Each chapter deals separately with tho treatment of German prisoners in France, and that of French priso-ners in Germany. A preliminary chapter deals vrith the sources from which evidence regarding prisoners' camps hag been obtained. On the German side this scandalous fact is noted, that at Magdeburg, where tho visit of delegates of tho Spanish Embassy was expected, German detectives introduced themselves to French officer prisoners as bsing the representatives of tho Spanish Embassy, and questioned them in that fraudulent capacity. Chapter I, dealing with tho capture of prisoners of war, contains such authenio statements as these: Lieutenant B. ( 34th Infantry, "was taken at Craonne, September 16, 1914. He says: " Prisoners able to walk are taken to Laon. A boy of about 16 is joinod on to oar detachment. His hands aro tied behind his back. ai»d the Germans pat two sacks on his back. One of t&em holds him by a leash, kicks him, knocks him with the butt of his rifle, and spits on him. They have taken him for a spy. I questioned the boy. Ho said he did not know . why he had been talcen. Ho walked in the tain 30 kilometres, hustled on with blows from the butts of rifles. We reached Laon, having oaten nothing all day. Women tried to give us bread, but were driven back by tho butts of rifles. We were taken to artillery barracks. The Germans tied tho boy to a rirfg, and covered him with their rifles. The bov, who was -worn out, cried and prayed, anil tugged at the ropes. We looked sway, so as not to see the end. The Germans conveyed their prisoners in cattle vans. Lieutenant B. writes: — " From September 20 we travelled huddled in vans. In mine there were 57 of us, including 10 wounded. Wo could neither lie down nor sit. We travelled for fonr days, and the windows were only opened once or. twice a day. We passed train after train carrying troops, and were jeered at by the soldiers." In Germany prisoners of war were received with insults and blows. At Erfurt women met fee prisoners on the station platform, armed with knives and sickles, and said they wanted to kill tho French. At Rfstortt, on August 24, 1914, prisoners were exhibited to a crowd of thousands of persons, and Wgro driven Shrcmgh the town, the whole _.population jeering. At Torgan, on September 5, the population upon the prisoners and used weapons. Some recruits followed the oonvov of prisoners and kicked them as they went. OFFICERS AND PAROEE. Chapter II deals with the treatment of officers. The French Government states that 'the German Government has deliberately refused to give French officers parole. The same privilege has, therefore, been withdrawn from all German officers interned in Fiance. The French Government first decided merely that parole would no longer be granted, but, owing to tho persistent action of the German Government, the French Government in February, 1915, abolished parole altogether and interned all German officers in- France. The German .Government mado the astounding statement that no word of honour could have any value in a war "which was begun by a breach of the given word? And who ■was it broke his word? According to the German Government, it was the Chief of the Russian Staff, on July 9, 1914. Hence the Gorman Government oonclmdes thai words of honour are no longer of any account in this war. In Chapter HI terrible descriptions an; given of the promiscuity in which military • and civilian prisoners have been kept in certain German camps—for instance, at Holzminden, where in September 1914 women, children-, and old men were huddled together, and in wooden barracks women became mothers on one floor, while the remainder of the prisoners went about around • them or on the floors bolow. "Regarding the prisoners' food, the French Government announces that having obtained certain knowledge of the insnffieient nourishment given to French prisoners in Germany, it reduced the meat ration of the German prisoners in Franco successively from 350 to 250 grammes per day; then, . after January, 1915, to 125 grammes. For the same reason German prisoners' ration of bread was reduced in December, 1915, from 700 to 300 grammes. At the same date German feeding of prisoners having been still further reduced, the meat ration of German prisoners in France was brought down to 120 grammes three times a week, besides 100 grammes of porkbutcher's meat, the ration_ of vegetables being increased in compensation. Since last May, however, after endless indirect negotiations with Jhe German Government, the French Government has increased the bread ration of prisoners to 600 grammes per day. These rations are still considerably superior to what French prisoners obtain in Germany, where their coffee is mado of acorns and their soup of turnips, dried peas, beetroot leaves etc. DELIBERATE CONTAGION. The chapter on the health condition of prisoners of war states that tho German Government, contrary to Tho Hague Conventions, kept as prisoners 500 doctors and over 4000 Red Cross nurses, on the excuse that they would attend their fellow-country-men; bat, instead of that, they were kept in a state of enforced idleness. For instance, uurir/g tho frightful epidemic of typhus at Wittenberg, or on other 'occasions, as at Gi-cfenwoehr, they had to look on while German surgeons in a sort of fury cut off limbs right and loft. Tho epidemic of enaufchematous typhus broke out also at Langensalza and at oassel-N ; eder7weuren. It was produced solely by the deliberate bringing together of French and Russian, prisoners, the latter carrying the contagion. The German authorities sarcastically" announced that " the Allies must learn to know each other." German doctors protested, whereupon the commander of tho Cassel camp said: " That is my way of fighting the war." The cases of typhus at Cassel are estimated at 10,000, including 2000 deaths. Tho chapter on discipline among prisoners gives many instances of brutality in German . camps. At Altongrabhof, on the occasion of the Emperor's visit, a soldier of tho Bth Chasseurs wa? killed by a bayonet thrust because he ('id not leave the lavatory quickly enough. At Oprdruf, Bertin, a trooper in the Ist Colonial Regiment was pierced through the heart by a bayonet because he misunderstood an order. When allied aviators flew over Baden and Wurttemburg, prisoners of war weie taken out and placed round powder magazines. REFINEMENTS OF CRUELTY. Among punishments, the most terriblo was the stake. There are different refinements of cruelty. For instance, at Konigsbruck, the culprit touches tlie_ ground only with his toes. At Custrow, his feet do not touch , tho ground at all. At Stendal, tho stake is not driven into the ground, but the prisoner has to carry it on his back with his bound arms, the heavier end being uppermost, during two or four hours a day for several days running. His punishment is inflicted for smoking, or for not having adequately saluted an officer. At Chemnitz, the stake punishment has been replaced by the sack; the prisoner, carrying on his baok a sad; weighing about 301b, must run for four quarters of sai horn- successively, with intervals of two nrirrtrios' _ rest. At Sennelager, there are other punishments; for instance, "the roof." The culprit with bare lefs is hoisted upon a tarred roof and exposed there to the sun for hours. Tho sack punishment consists in compiling a man carrying a sack of bricks weighing 601b, and with two brides in each hand, to run round and round the yard till he drops. Brushing is another punishment. The man is stripped, and a German N. 0.0. scrubs him with a hard brush until blood flows. In the chaptcr dealing with the labour of prisoners of war, the French Government states that over 1500 French prisoners of war work bv compulsion in tho Kropp factories at Eeeen and elsewhero.