BRUTALITY AND COWARDICE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 83, 1 November 1918, Page 3

BRUTALITY AND COWARDICE.

HOW GERMANS TREAT PRISONERS. A Gisborne soldier, who recently returned to his home after having been in a German prison camp, in the course of a newspaper interview gave some interesting sidelights on the treatment of prisoners by the Germans. This soldier, Private H. J. Poole, was wounded in the vicinity of Flers, and on September 21, 1916, woke up and found himself in a Gorman military hospital at Camhrai. From Camhrai be went by train to Parehin, the journey occupying from ] o’clock oix Monday o’clock on Wednesday morning, and during that time he received very little attention. He | was sent to the hospital in a laager about two miles from Parchin, The doctor only visited the hospital twice a week, and there was very little food. During the first week, five of the forty who had come with Private Poole died of starvation. The only food offered was a little coarse bread, a small piece of sausage, or a piece of pickled fish, half raw. One of the men was offered tins , piece of fish, but he was unable to eat it and it was taken away. Next day it was offered again and again refused; and it was offered and refused, day by day, until, on the seventh day, the poor fellow died of starvation. After a month Private Poole bad recovered sufficiently to leave Lite hospital, and was put to work, his job on the day after be left the hospital being to work a snow-plough. He had a whole sidt and wooden shoes, with rags round his feet for j socks. The midday meal consisted of . boiled turnips, with perhaps a little ■ maize meal, and the evening meal of j a little blue pea-me‘al sou)). At night big bed consisted of a bale of hay and two thin blankets. Private Poole worked on a farm for about ten months, and was quite well treated by the farmer’s wife. But the treat- ' ment he received from civilians was much better than that received from ; the military people, who were cruel i and harsh. During the day, while he was working on the farm, sentries i were posted at various points to see ' that none of the prisoners escaped. * In the German army non-commission-ed officers are saluted in addition to commissioned officers, and the prisoners fell in with this practice; hut a sentry who was not a non-commission-ed officer insisted on Private Poole saluting him, hut was met with a refusal. For punishment the New Zealand'soldier was hung up by the wrists, with his feet off the ground, a howl of soup being placed at his feet to add to the torture. He was left hanging from 9.60 a.m. till o p.m. Next day he was stnmg up again, though on this occasion his feet were touching the ground. At midday he fainted and was placed m the barrack until next morning, when he was again strung up till 3 p.m. All the food he had during the time the punishment was in progress was a bowl of soup daily, which he received on returnjng to the barrack. For another three months Pi Bate Poole worked for sixteen hours a dtfy in a sugar factory, on a very scanty 1 allowance of food. When, ho left this i job he weighed only 9libs. Had it not been for the parcels received from I the Central War Committee under the Order of St. John of Jerusalem the prisoners would never have been I a bio to live. The parcels arrived fairly regularly after prisoners bad been in a j particular place for some time, but when they were shifted it took the Committee some time to locate them., and while Private Poole, was working at the sugar factory he received only one parcel.