SERBIANS KEPT IN CAGES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14572, 6 April 1918, Page 9

SERBIANS KEPT IN CAGES.

OVER 30,000 HAVE BEEN STARVED YYy LONDON, February 2. ] Exchanged Italian prisoners who have just, arrived from Austrian concentration camps tell of" almost unbelievable cruelties practised against prisoners, particularly Serbians, who are reported confined iri eag&s and fed through the bars like animals' , A .ll authoritative summary of tlie statements of these return- • ed prisoners says : — * i •"The treatment of the v Serbians is even worse than that of the Italians, indicating that. v Austria intends to destroy the. Serbians! as a race. As a result of , tneseycojiclitiohs there are pp 'to now

1 not less than 30,000 to 40,000 dead from .•starvation. They are permitted to receive no parcels, and are unable to work, because of weakness. They are put like animals in cages with wooden bars. ] Through these bars the keepers throw . them scraps of uneatable bread, carrots, ! and turnips, as their sole sustenance. i The mortality, already great, is increasing, as they receive no care, and there are no doctors and no sanitation. Concerning the Italians, the statement says they returned in rags after suffering ill-treatment and exposure to cold while compelled to work on enemy trenches under the guard of Hungarians, who are said to be particularly" hostile to the Italians. They received a small loaf of bread daily for division among eight men. Conditions are so terrible, the report says, that they will result in not more than one-third' of the Italian prisoners coming back alive.