SUFFERINGS OF PRISONERS

Otago Witness, Issue 3337, 27 February 1918, Page 18

SUFFERINGS OF PRISONERS

REPORTS BY MEN WTETO ESCAPED. CRUELTY OF THE TURKS. (By Cable). Corporal A. Shoebridge (40/563), of the Wellington Battalion, New is among the first prisoners to arrive ffom" Turkey. He states that he was engaged in an attack upon Anafarta in 1915, when the Anzacs were forced to retire. He left the field shot in the elbow, and was taken with other New Zealanders from Gallipoli in a jolting cart. They were stopped at the roadside by an old Turkish woman, who_ -belaboured them with a heavy stick, killing a man who was suffering from a serious bayonet wound in the stomach. The body was left by the roadside. Shoebridge was sent to a good hospital' in Constantinople, but in a few days he was told, that the British were ill-treating Turkish prisoners, and as a reprisal he was sent to a building like a stable. The windows were boarded up, and it was dark. The prisoners - were laid on a dirty floor, with'; a blanket each, and their wounds were not attended to. Later, he was sent to various hospitals., Throughout the treatment was bad; and the food wretched, consisting of bread, boiled wheat, and potatoes. * Other prisoners state that the British prisoners died like flies, and were buried unclothed and uncofnned in holes holding four. The condition of the prisoners from Kut was indescribable. At first he could not believe that they were British. Some were clad in a shirt only. The prisoners received £4 monthly from the American, and then from the Dutch Consul. They were permitted to buy food, but the prices were terrible. They stayed 10 weeks in Austria en route. The food was than in Turkey. The conditions in Turkey, have now" much improved. Australian wounded 'soldiers repatriated from Turkey endorse previous statements as to the cruelty of the Turks to prisoners. They flatly contradict the statement that the Turk is a clean fighter. _ Their .usual punisiimerit for any petty crime is to tie prisoners head downwards, and their feet are.then lashed with raw-hide whips. The: treatment in Austria, where the Australian's stayed some weeks, was Heaven compared with Turkey. One returned man declared that the Germans in Turkey were the prisoners' only friends, probably because the Turks hate the Germans, and vice versa, and the Germans therefore regarded the white men as a tie between themselves and the Fatherland. Choat and Pitts, two British prisoners who escaped from Germany, belonged to a working party o'f 40 prisoners near Dusseldorf. This party included seven overseas prisoners, six of whom attempted to escape, and five of them succeeded, while the other one has since been repatx'iated. Choat copied a fellow-prisoner's rough map of the country from Dusseldorf to the Dutch frontier, showing the towns, railways, and waterways. he studied the stars nighJTly for two months by the aid of a stellar map, which he picked up, for guidance at night while travelling to the frontier. Six prisoners escaped simultaneously in September, climbing down a lightning-rod at the prison. They divided into two parties, ana. slept in the woods in the daytime. Choat's party were awakened one afternoon by a gunshot and some falling leaves. They saw a sportsman, who had missed a bird overhead. The bird, if shot, would have fallen on their hiding-place, which would have , meant their discovery. The party suffered severely from thirst, the brooks being dry, as it was the end of summed. They were captured on the third night within a mile of the frontier, where they ran into the arms of a sentry, who said he had been waiting for them. Civilians surrounded the party, and this necessitated the abandonment of the idea of overpowering the sentry. The other crossed the frontier safely. - Choat and Titts made a second attempt in December. They got through an Bin aperture of the barred window of their prison, and climbed down from a height of 40ft-*oy the aid of a rope, which had been previously secreted. They saw a married prison sentry making love to a girl. The sentry, desiring not to be observed, turned his face away on hearing

footsteps. Choat in passing brushed the sentry's arm.

The escapees followed the same route as on their previous attempt. They hid in a roadside ditch for three hours in the second night, awaiting the end of a soldier's prolonged good-night to his sweetheart. It rained almost mcessantly during three days after they escaped. They became aware that they were nearing the frontier on the third night, owing to the distant barking of dogs in Holland, for there are no dogs in Germany, all being eaten or killed off owing to the food shortage. They crossed the frontier at daybreak, while it was raining so heavily that the sentries were unable to see more than a few yards.