“STARVE THE ENGLISH PRISONERS.”

Otago Witness, Issue 3196, 16 June 1915, Page 39 (Supplement)

“STARVE THE ENGLISH PRISONERS.”

Wonderful as was the heroism of the British troops at Neuve Chapelle, the village reca tured by us from the Germans, the victory was made possible only by the massing of 350 guns which spoke at once on a front of barely 3000 yards. The photograph shows the ruins of the village of Neuve Chapelle after the terrible bombardment, giving an idea of the havoc wrought by modern artillery.

first to be starved: ‘‘Many thanks for your last letter. I showed it to Prinoc . and he thought your proposition good. It is the damned English that may be the cause of the solution of our prisoner problem not working. Those swine, it is they that turn our stomachs: but for them we should not now bo getting nearer the precipice of starvation. Between us. as old friends, I tell vou we shall be face to face with starvation. Yet. you say, we cannot starve the prisoners. Why not? Not only now is England our worst enemy, but she is ruining us.

“ Oh, my friend, can you ask me to think of England and the English but in one way only? ‘They are swine dogs of swine dogs.’ We, in Germany cannot feel or treat their officers, their soldiers, but as they are—as swine must be treated —for they are swine, every ‘John Bull’ of them. And when an English prisoner dies we say: ‘God he thai ked. one “John Bull” loss.’ It is so, and no persuasion from you will make any difference. “From the Kaiser clown to ‘the gutterboy’ we all say the same—we don’t want

to exchange them, but let them be here, like the swine they are. The English die like swine, polluting- the Fatherland by dying here, sa'- we. We are not going to feed them when we may want for ourselves. To salve her conscience for all she’s about to aggrandise herself through Germany’s downfall she’s ‘slobbering over’ our Germans in England. Why, the prisoners themselves own it, and we say, well, we will be honest, we will show the world we won’t ‘slobber over’ the English prisoners. No, they shall first starve, slowly but surely.

The Morning Post has received from a neutral correspondent, on whose good faith the journal says absolute reliance may be placed, the following letter written by a highly placed official of the German Government. This is the third communication from the same source. In the last this high German official roundly declared that if there was any shortage of food in Germany the English prisoners would be the

This remarkable photograph was taken in France during the pursuit of a German airship by an aeroplane, after the raid on Paris on March 21. The snapshot, taken from a second plane, shows the pursuing aeroplane, in ■which two men can be clearly discerned. In reality, the machine is a considerable distance from the airship, as can be judged from the relative sizes of the two machines. The airship is ascending, and has turned towards the camera, which accounts for the foreshortening of the rear part of the gas bag. (Photos by Centra] News.)

“We are not afraid, England, with her old-women-like politicians, to insist that our prisoners in England should be well treated. “I think 200,000 Russians will be exchanged this month for ditto Gormans. But with English prisoners, I say ‘No.’ Let the English prisoners join us in our starvation, let them die, like swine if needs be, when the hunger arrives. Certainly, mein freiind, your proposal has been under discussion, and is to bo taken to the Kaiser for the discussion by your faithful friend, and then will I write again.”

Back row (from left): Lieutenant Stafford (P. and T. Corps), Lieutenant Clapp (Nightcaps), Lieutenant Watson (Pallia). Lieutenant Lithgow (Band), Lieutenant Fraser (Invercargill).

Front row; Lieutenant Yalen'ine (Bluff). Captain Stevens (Adjutant). Captain Cushen (Invercargill), Lieutenant Bannerman (Bluff), Lieutenant Butcher (Invercargill). Quartermaster Lieutenant Ferguson (Invercargill).

EIGHTH REGIMENTAL CAMP, HELD AT FIVE RIVERS, SOUTHLAND, MAY, 1915,