"WORSE THAN HELL."

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 13794, 15 June 1915, Page 2

"WORSE THAN HELL."

BRITISH PRISONERS IN

GERMANY.

A TERRIBLE OUTLOOK

The following statement regarding

the treatment of British prisoners in Germany—which was sent by; a prisoner to his brother inside a split postcard—was read at a recent recruiting meeting held in Fulham in connection with the great fifteen-day recruiting campaign that is now being carried on in London (writes the London correspondents the Auckland "Star"): — ;" ""We are being starved here. We get rico water and horse beans only, no solid food, one loaf of bread for six days. Several men have been rim through with bayonets by the guard, and a large number are being flogged and tied to a barbed wire post for six hcurs, with their toes just touching the ground; they do this without any just cause. "We have one blanket, and all the men are suffering from itch and.dysentery. The guards knock us about unmercifully with rifles and sticks' ;.■ we have hardly anything to wear, as our captors took them away "It is worse than being in hell. They have given coats and shirts to the French,, but will give the British nothing. "The wdunded do not get proper treatment, an<l several have died, and there will be a lot more yet. All I have said is quite true. I could tell you- a lot more, but this is enough for now." - The immediate effect of the reading of this statement was that a considerable number of men at once came forward and offered themselves for enlistment. If .the Germans are treating their British captives in this fashion to-day, what will be their fate when things begin to go really badly with our enemy ? M. Eugster, the delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross Society, who has been visiting the German prison camps, where"800,000 prisoners are detained, declares that they are in danger of starvation. He points out that under The Hague regulations of 1907 the Allies might provide food for their own men, which could be imported and under the supervision of neutrals. In principle, he says, Germany is bound to feed her jrisouers or release them, but in practice it is only too clear that Germany ivould starve them rather- than release them, and that as the supply of food .vithin the Empire grows less.it is.they ,vho will be made to feel the. shortage irst—and it is clear, though M. Sjigster-<loes not say so, that the Britsh will bo the first to suffer. Reading between the lines of M. Sugster's report, it is evident that the >ersonal impression he has received rom his own- contact with German >fKcialdom is that a new form of wholeale barbarity is to be foreseen, and nust bo dealt with in time. An exihange of prisoners would bo only a tartial remedy, for it is an unfortunate ruth that the number of prisoners held i£>h'c Allies falls far short of the total fi the camps of "Germany.